God's name: readable but unpronounceable, why?

Abstract. The understanding of God's name YHWH is so controversial that it is eventually the
controversy of controversies, or the ultimate controversy. Indeed, why most of competent Hebrew scholars
propagate patently false explanations about God's name? Why do the Jews refuse to read God's name as it
is written and read Adonay "my Lord" (a plural of majesty) instead of it? Why God's name is usually
punctuated e,â (shewa, qamats) by the Masoretes what makes its reading impossible, because the 4
consonants of the name YHWH must have at least 3 vowels (long or short) to be read, like the words
’aDoNâY and ’eLoHîM "God" (a plural of majesty), which have 4 consonants and 3 vowels? At last,
why the obvious reading "Yehowah", according to theophoric names, which all begin by Yehô-, without
exception, is so despised, and why the simple biblical meaning, "He will be" from Exodus 3:14, is rejected.

The name of the God of Abraham (written YHWH in Hebrew) is really paradoxical
because, despite being the best known God today on earth —he is worshipped by at least
one billion Christians and one billion Muslims, and his name is held in high esteem —the
Lord's prayer begins by Let your name be sanctified and all the Surahs of the Quran (except the
9th) begin by In the name of God, it remains an enigma, even for the most brilliant scholars.
As a result, for most Christians the name of the God of Abraham is the Lord, for Muslims
it is Allah and for Jews it is Adonai. Consequently the first paradox is: most people think it
logical of worshiping the same God whereas their God does not even have the same name.
Second paradox: most people think logical to use a title for naming God: my Lord
(Adonai), Allah (the God), Father, etc., rather than using YeHoWaH, his proper name in
the Hebrew Bible. Third paradox: most people think it is logical that the name of the
Almighty has been lost, in spite of the fact that most Egyptian gods were able to preserve
their names (Râ, Amun, Thoth, Isis, Horus, Aten, etc.), but not the god of the Bible: Then
God said once more to Moses: This is what you are to say to the Israelites, Jehovah the God of your
forefathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my
name forever, and this is how I am to be remembered from generation to generation (Ex 3:15). I quoted
several official translations to illustrate how the scholarly “delirium” performs. Indeed I
noticed that, very often, smart people become irrational when they study God's name. For
example, given that the information regarding the name YHWH —its pronunciation and
meaning, come exclusively from the Bible, one would have to take them into account more
than any scholarly guesses, but incredibly it is not the case. Even if you don't know
Hebrew, it is very easy to find the pronunciation and meaning of God's name. The
(religious)1 meaning of God's name is ’ehyeh “I shall [prove to] be” according to Exodus 3:15,
this verbal form is found just before and just after “I shall [prove to] be with your mouth (Ex
3:12; 4:12)”. This verbal form at the 3rd person singular is “it will [prove to] be (Ec 11:3)”.
How to pronounce God's name? When Jesus read aloud a passage from Isaiah's
scroll in the synagogue at Nazareth (Lk 4:17-21) he inevitably pronounced the divine name
(YHWH), since the quoted passage mentions it: The spirit of Lord YHWH is on me for
YHWH has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the news to the afflicted, to soothe the broken-hearted,
to proclaim liberty to captives, release to those in prison, to proclaim a year of favour from YHWH and a
day of vengeance for our God, to comfort all who mourn (Is 61:1-2). Some sceptics quibble that we
do not know exactly how Jesus uttered God's name, which is strictly true (indeed, we
unfortunately did not record his reading), but this is also true for all other Hebrew names
without exception. However, it is reasonable to assume that the name Jesus (from Iesous in
Greek) was pronounced Yehôshûa‘ in Hebrew, often abbreviated as Yeshûa‘ (Yeshû in
1 Yehowah means nothing in Hebrew because Moses, who obviously knew Hebrew, asked God to know its meaning.
2

Aramaic), in the same way that John was pronounced Yehôhanan, Jonathan was
pronounced Yehônathan, etc. It is easy to see that all theophoric names, which include the
divine name YHW- at their beginning, are always pronounced Yehô- (or Yehow-), without
exception (or Iô- in the Septuagint because it there is no H in Greek). This elementary
observation allows us to deduce that the divine name YHWH had to be pronounced
Yehowah because all the Hebrew proper names ending in -WH in Hebrew are always read
-wah (or -wâ)2, again without exception3, like Alwah (Gn 36:40), (Eve) Hawwah (Gn 4:1),
Ishwah (Gn 46:17), Iwwah (2R 19:13), Puwah (Nb 26:23) and Tiqwah (2K 22:14).
However, this obvious fact only appears in Hebrew because in Aramaic, final gutturals (H, ‘
and ’) were not any more pronounced already in the 3rd century BCE, which has influenced
some Greek transcriptions like Eve instead of Hawwah, Iesou instead of Yeshûa, Tekoue
instead of Tiqwah, etc., but -weh is never found (except for Yahweh!).
In order to muddle common people, specialists deliberately confuse the great name
of God YHWH with its shorten form YH, which appears in the New Testament (Rv 19:1-
3) in the famous Hebrew expression “Alleluia” which means “Praise Yah”, not “Praise
God” (Alleluel). In the Bible there is a clear distinction between the great name Yehowah
(Ps 83:18), the short name Yah (Ps 68:4), which can appear together (Is 12:2, 26:4) and the
ancient Hebrew substitute hû’ “He/ Himself” understood4 as “[God] Himself”:
Name MT LXX Meaning Reference
Abihu Abi-hû Abi-oud My Father : He (only) Ex 6:23; Lv 10:1
Abijah Abi-yah Ab-ia My Father : Yah 1Ch 3:10
Abijah Abi-yahû Ab-ia My Father : Yah-himself 2Ch 13:20
Joab Yô-ab Iô-ab Y(eh)ow(ah) : Father 2Sa 8:16
Jehu Ye-hu Ie-ou Ye(howah) : Himself 1Ch 2:38
Elihu Eli-hû Eli-ou My God : He (only) Job 32:2,4
Elijah Eli-yah El-ia My God : Yah Ezr 10:21
Elijah Eli-yahû Eli-ou My God : Yah-himself 1Ki 17:1
Joel Yô-el Iô-el Y(eh)ow(ah) : God 1Ch 5:12
As a result there are three kinds of theophoric names, those having as prefix a part
of the great name (YHWH), those having as suffix the short name YH, sometimes with the
substitute HW “He” (YHW). A paramount remark concerns the respective place of the
great name (Yehowah) and small name (Yah or Yahû) in theophoric names. For example,
the famous French rabbi Rashi of Troyes (1040-1105) explains in his commentary on
Numbers 26: 5 that all God-bearing names begin with Yehô- or end up with -yah (or yahû):
Therefore, the Holy One, blessed is he, appended His Name to them, the letters of H' [YHWH] at the
beginning and Y. [YH] at the end, as if to say “I bear witness for them, that these are the sons of their
fathers.” This is stated explicitly by David « the tribes of Yah, testimony to Israel » (Ps. 122:4) —this
Name testifies for them regarding their tribes. There is absolutely no exception, including in the
Septuagint, no theophoric name begins with Yah- (or Yahû-) or ends up with –yehô:
Name LXX MT Meaning Reference
Nathan Nathan Nathan He has given 2Sa 7:2
Nethaniah Nathan-ias Nethan-yah He has given - Yah 1Ch 25:2
Nethaniah Nathan-iou Nethan-yahû He has given - Yah himself Jr 36:14
Jonathan Iô-nathan Yehô-nathan Yehow[ah] - has given 1Sa 14:6
Jonathan Iô-nathan Yô-nathan Y(eh)ow[ah] - has given 1Sa 14:1
Eliehoenai El-iô-naï El-yehô-‘enay Toward Yehow[ah] my eyes 1Ch 26:3
Elioenai El-iô-naï El-yô-‘enay Toward Y(eh)ow[ah] my eyes 1Ch 4:36
2 The final H being a vowel it should be noted â. It is for this reason that many authors write Juda instead of Judah.
3 Even the Assyrian name "Nineveh" (Gn 10:11), which is spelled NYNWH in Hebrew, is written uruNINAki in cuneiform (probably
from NIN.AN “Lady of Heaven”) and is read Ninua in Akkadian or Ninuwa in Mari letters dated 18th century BCE.
4 This substitute is sometimes written hû’ah or hû’hâ at Qumran.
 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 3

Some grammarians argue that the prefix in theophoric names (Yehô- or Yô-) would
not be an abbreviation for Yehowah but would come from a former Yahû because of the
phonetic laws (Yahû >> Yehô), in the same way that the name Nabou-chodonosor (LXX)
became Nebu-chadnezzar (MT) or Nathanyah became Nethanyah. It is easy to see that this
assumption is false because the change of pronunciation (fall of the 1st vowel) took place
during the 3rd century BCE, that is why the majority of names in the LXX have kept the
old vocalization. Consequently, if the old vocalization of Yehô-nathan was Yahû-nathan we
would have had to find Iaou-nathan many times, but there is absolutely none!
The perfectly regular vocalization among more than one thousand theophoric
names, as well in the Masoretic text as in the Septuagint, imposes a vocalization "Yehowah"
for the Tetragrammaton. If God's name (YHWH) had been vocalized Yahweh, or
Yahwoh, as some claim, there should have some theophoric names beginning with Yahw-
or Yah- (like Janathan or Jasus for example), yet there are absolutely none, not a single one.
Even within the Hebrew proper names in the Bible, God's name remained Yehô-, not Yah
or Yahû. For example Eliehoenai (1Ch 26:3) is written El-yehô-‘enay “toward Yehow[ah
are] my eyes” in Hebrew (not El-yahû-‘enay) or El-iô-nai in the Septuagint.

Wilhelm Gesenius, who was a renowned German orientalist and Biblical critic,
recognized that theophoric names were giving a powerful argument in favour of Yehowah
in his Hebräisches und Chaldäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament (1834): Several consider
that ‫( יַהֲ וֹה‬Yahawoh) is the true pronunciation (...) others as Reland (...) following the Samaritans, suppose
that ‫( יַהְ וֶה‬Yaheweh) was anciently the true pronunciation (...) Also those who consider ‫( יְהוָֹה‬Yehowah) was
the actual pronunciation are not altogether without ground on which to defend their opinion. In this way can
be abbreviated syllables ‫( יְהוֹ‬Yehô) and ‫( יוֹ‬Yô), with which many proper names begin, be more satisfactorily
explained5. It is for this reason that Samuel Cahen, who produced for Jews the first French
translation directly from the Hebrew text, began (in 1834) to systematically use the Iehova
vocalization (see below) in his French text instead of Eternal.

Several Jewish translators systematically used the name Jehovah in their translation
of the Hebrew Bible6 (left below: Joseph Magil, right: Rabbi Lazarus Goldschmidt):

5 H.W.F. GENESIUS –Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament

Grand Rapid, Michigan 1979, Ed. Baker Book House, p. 337.

6 J. MAGIL –Magil’s Linear School Bible (1910 reprint) 1899 New York, Ed. J. Magil’s Publishing Co.

L. GOLDSCHMIDT –Die heiligen Bücher des alten Bundes übertragen durch Vol. 1 (The Holy Books of the Old Covenant, translated by
Berlin, Ed. Rosenthal & Co. 1925).
4

Contrary to a fairly widespread idea, Jewish scholarly authorities acknowledge

without difficulty that the name Jehovah is the genuine name of God in Hebrew. For
example it can be seen in a technical book written for the Jews7, prefaced by the French
Chief Rabbi Joseph Sitruk (1987-2008), that: the name Ye.ho.va (Jéhovah), written with the Hebrew
letters Yod, He Vav, He, is considered as the genuine name of God. Most people ignore this basic
truth because Jewish scholarly authorities are much less known than the Jewish religious
authorities that teach God's name is Adonay. For example, the Jewish professor J.H. Levy
explained in his article published in 1903 in The Jewish Quarterly Review8 that the vowel-
points of the Tetragram (e,o,â) are not those of Adonay (a,o,â) and Yâhû (‫ )י ָהוּ‬is not a real
name because the final û (‫ )וּ‬is simply the old nominative affix (which means “he”,
therefore Yâhû means “Yah [is] He”). He concluded his article: My solution of that problem
may be tersely stated in the words of Isaiah xxvi. 4: ‫“ בְּ יָהּ יְהוָֹה‬Y’howah is Yah”. These issues are not
new, since some Jewish scholars of the past, who had edited grammars of Hebrew and
translated the Bible into Latin, had already used the name Jehovah in their books. For
example, Immanuel Tremellius, an Italian Jewish convert to Christianity, who was known
as a leading Hebraist and Bible translator9, wrote a “Chaldaic” and Syriac grammar (1569)
and translated the Hebrew Bible into Latin (1579) in which he systematically used the name
Jehova (see below) and did not translate the first Eheie (“I shall be”):

7 A.J. KOLATCH – Le Livre Juif du pourquoi ? tome 1

Genève 1993, Ed. MJR Editions, pp. IX, 347.

8 J.H. LEVY – The Tetra(?)grammaton

in: The Jewish Quarterly Review,Vol. 15, No. 1 (Oct., 1902), pp. 97-99.
9 He also translated John Calvin's Geneva Catechism into Hebrew (Paris, 1551).
 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 5

Baruch Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher and was raised in the Portuguese Jewish
community in Amsterdam10. He too used the name Jehova several times in his Hebrew
grammar (Compendium grammatices linguæ hebrææ), which was published in 1677. Similarly
Alexander Harkavy11, who was a lexicographer and linguist, used Jehova several times in his
translation of the Bible from the King James version (The Holy Scriptures, 1916). If today
the vast majority of people believe that the God of the Bible has no name, but just a title
“Lord (Adonay)”, or that this name has been lost, it is not the fault of Jewish scholars, but
of the Jewish religious leaders condemning those who use God’s name (Jehovah). That’s
why Nehemia Gordon, a Karaite Jew who holds a Master's degree in Biblical Studies from
the Hebrew University of Jerusalem12, published a book Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence in
which he explains that the fact of not mentioning God’s name is unfounded and on the
contrary one must pronounce this name Yehovah13 (in modern Hebrew).
When Hebraists are asked why they read God's name “Adonay”, instead of
Yehowah, they usually respond that it is for sake of the Jewish custom inspired by one of
the 10 commandments, not to blaspheme God's name. Once again these Hebraists induce
people into error because the Torah by no means forbids the pronouncing of God's name,
but only not to use it in vain for worthless things: You shall not take the name of the Lord, your
God, in vain, for the Lord will not hold blameless anyone who takes His name in vain (Exodus 20:7,
The Complete Jewish Bible With Rashi Commentary). So this custom is not observed by all Jews,
it is generally respected in Rabbinism14, the majority tendency of Judaism, but not in
Karaism. This unbiblical practice emerged around the middle of the 2nd century CE. The
Talmud (Sanhedrin 101a; 10:1) warns against the magical use of certain biblical quotations
such Exodus 15:26, and says that those who do it will not participate in the world to come.
The rabbi Abba Saul added (c. 130 CE): as one who "pronounces the name according to its letters"
will not have his share in the world to come. The term "to pronounce the Name according to its
letters" means to pronounce the name as it is written, or according to the sound of its
letters which is different of spelling a name according to its letters. Indeed, it was allowed
to spell the name YHWH according to its letters, as the Talmud itself does, that is to say in
Hebrew: Yod (Y), He (H), Waw (W), He (H); in contrast, it was forbidden to pronounce it
according to these letters. In the Talmud the Tetragram is designated by the term Shem Ha-
mephorash, which means “the name read distinctly” or "the name read according to its
letters". Some Kabbalists claim that the word mephorash means “hidden” but, once more,
this statement contradicts the sense that the Bible gives to this word: And they read in the
scroll, in the Law of God, distinctly, and gave sense, and they explained the reading to them (Neh 8: 8,
The Complete Jewish Bible With Rashi Commentary). The ban of not reading the name of God
according to its letters has therefore nothing mysterious or esoteric, it simply means that
one should not pronounce the name of God as it is written. For example, the name
10 He developed highly controversial ideas regarding the authenticity of the Hebrew Bible and the nature of the Divine. The Jewish
religious authorities issued a cherem (excommunication) against him, effectively excluding him from Jewish society at age 23. His books
were also later put on the Catholic Church's Index of Forbidden Books.
11 He was a Russian-born American writer. After the antisemitic pogroms of 1880 in Russia, Harkavy joined the Jewish Am Olam

(Eternal People) back-to-the-land movement.

12 He was born to a Jewish family of rabbis. He rejected the idea that the Talmud has divine authority and became a Karaite. Nehemia is

a native of Chicago but has lived in Jerusalem, Israel since making Aliyah in 1993. Until recently Gordon served on Universal Karaite
Judaism's "Religious Council" (which is the lower religious council in the Karaite Organization), and on the Board of Directors of the
ancient Karaite synagogue in Jerusalem. He is also a co-founder of the World Karaite Movement, a Karaite revival group. He coordinates
aviv searches each year and releases information on the crescent new moon sightings in Israel. From 2007 to 2008, Nehemia Gordon
served in the position of senior academic administrator of the Karaite Jewish University. He assisted in the translation of texts contained
in The Dead Sea Scrolls Reader, was an assistant on the Dead Sea Scrolls Publication project coordinated by Emanuel Tov, and worked
as a researcher on the Hebrew University Bible Project under the auspices of Shemaryahu Talmon.
13 N. GORDON – Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence

Arlington 2012, Ed. Hilkiah Press, pp. 191-207.

14 The Rabbanite Jews are the successors of the Pharisees, they consider that the Oral Law (Talmud), which was finally written after 200

CE, is higher than the written law (Torah), in contrast the Karaite Jews (such as the Masoretes) have the opposite point of view.
6

YHWDH is spelled Y, H, W, D, H and is pronounced, according to its letters: IHUDA

(Ihûdâ, Yehûdah in Masoretic Hebrew, Iouda in Greek), because the Y and W are semi-
consonants (or semi-vowels noted î and û) and the final H is pronounced â (A) otherwise
the letter is inaudible. Similarly, the name YHWH is spelled Y, H, W, H and is pronounced,
according to its letters: IHUA (Ihûâ, Yehûah in Masoretic Hebrew, [Ioua] in Greek).
God's name is really an amazing paradox, because despite it being one of the easiest
names to read, since it is pronounced as it is written, theologians with the help of
grammarians succeeded to convince ordinary people that the pronunciation had been lost
and that through their great knowledge they had managed to find again the probable
pronunciation of God's name: Yahweh (based on a late Samaritan testimony in Ιαβε) or
Yahwoh (from a Greek papyrus of the Septuagint with Ιαω at Qumran). According to
Catholic theologians, Jesus had called God "Lord" since we read in the Jerusalem Bible, the
official Bible of Catholicism since 1955: He came to Nazara, where he had been brought up, and
went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day as he usually did. He stood up to read, and they handed him
the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll he found the place where it is written: The spirit of the
Lord is on me, for he has anointed me to bring the good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to proclaim
liberty to captives, sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim a year of favour from the Lord.
He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the assistant and sat down. And all eyes in the synagogue were
fixed on him. Then he began to speak to them: This text is being fulfilled today even while you are listening
(Lk 16-21). What is funny, is that the scroll of the prophet Isaiah is also quoted: The spirit of
Lord Yahweh is on me for Yahweh has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the news to the afflicted, to
soothe the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, release to those in prison, to proclaim a year of
favour from Yahweh and a day of vengeance for our God, to comfort all who mourn (Is 61:1-2). The
comparison of these two quotes illustrate an absurdity: God's name could not be both
“Lord” and “Yahweh”.
Translators who claim that all New Testament manuscripts, without exception,
have the name "Lord (Kurios in Greek)" are liars, because that name LORD is never
written KURIOS in Greek but only Κℂ, from 150 to 400 CE, in accordance with the
principle of sacred names (nomina sacra). As a result, if translators wanted to be absolutely
faithful to the oldest manuscripts they should write LD, instead of LORD. Before 150 CE
there were no New Testament manuscripts (except for a tiny fragment, the P52 dated 125
CE), in contrast all the manuscripts of the Septuagint, which is often quoted in the
Gospels, have kept God's name in Hebrew (YHWH) within the Greek text15, not Kurios.
Consequently, the text of Isaiah read by Jesus was: to proclaim a year of favour from YHWH. In
the first century CE, the prohibition of pronouncing God's name did not exist, on the
contrary, in certain special circumstances it was even mandatory to pronounce it aloud, for
example when the high priest was in the Temple to deliver the blessing from Numbers
6:24-27 during the Yom Kippur feast. If Jesus used the name, he did it respectfully and
never wanted to unnecessarily offend his listeners because in his time the respect of the
name had become an obsession. For example, the Talmud says that one should remove the
divine name of the jar stamps to preserve the holiness of the Name (Arachin 6a; Shabbat
61b). Similarly, one had to avoid using the name in conversation, as evidenced the
following recommendations in a Jewish apocryphal book written around 200-175 BCE: Do
not accustom your mouth to an oath, and do not become used to the naming of the Holy One. For just as a
domestic who is constantly scrutinized will not be wanting for a bruise, so also he who swears and always
speaks the name will never be cleansed from sin (...) Then as he descended, he raised up his hands over the
entire assembly of Israel’s sons, to give a blessing of the Lord from his lips and to boast in his name
(Sirach 23:9-10: 50:20). After the 2nd century BCE, the Jews believed that the privilege to
15 The name Iaô mentioned in a copy of the Septuagint dated c. 100 BCE corresponds to the Hebrew substitute Yahû “Yah himself”.
 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 7

pronounce God's name was reserved only for the Temple and that one should not disclose
the name to foreigners (Greek), as it is written (c. 50 BCE): And this became a hidden trap for
mankind, because men, in bondage to misfortune or to royal authority, bestowed on objects of stone or wood
the name that ought not to be shared (Wisdom of Solomon 14:21). One consequence of this
excessive sacralisation of God's name has paved the way for the ban. Indeed, the
translators of the Septuagint had already (c. 280 BCE) changed some Bible verses: And
speak to the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them: If a person, a person should curse God, he shall
assume guilt. Whoever names the name of YHWH —by death let him be put to death; let the whole
congregation of Israel stone him with stones. Whether a guest or a native, when he names YHWH, let him
die (Lv 24:15-16). Paradoxically, as noticed Philo (-25 to +50) in his book on the life of
Moses that: it was worse to name God (in Greek) than even to curse him (De vita Mosis II:203-206)!
During the intermediate period before the destruction of the Temple, the Talmud says that,
in the Palestinian liturgy, substitutes were used for the divine name (Sotah 7.6 Tamid 33b).
These substitutes were many, as can be seen in the literature of that time (2M 1:24-25; 15:3;
Wisdom 23:4; 50:14-19). The usual substitute in the Palestinian liturgy was Adonay in
Hebrew (Talmud Sotah 40b 7.6) and sometimes Elohim (Damascus Document XV:1).
Regarding the divine name in the 1st century, Philo give some accurate details: there
was a gold plaque shaped in a ring and bearing 4 engraved characters of a name which had the right to hear
and to pronounce in the holy place those ones whose ears and tongue have been purified by wisdom, and
nobody else and absolutely nowhere else. And this holy prophet Moses calls the name, a name of four letters,
making them perhaps symbols of the primary numbers (...) above this mitre is a golden leaf, on which an
engraving of four letters was impressed; by which letters they say that the name of the living God is
indicated, since it is not possible that anything that it in existence, should exist without God being invoked;
for it is his goodness and his power combined with mercy that is the harmony and unity of all things (De
vita Mosis II:115,132). The testimony of Philo confirms several points: the name of God
was still pronounced in the 1st century but only by a small group of people (the priests in
the temple), this sacred name was made up of four letters that Philo could not read any
more (because it was ancient Hebrew), and he concluded in his comment on Exodus 3:14
that paradoxically God had no proper name (De vita Mosis I:75)! The strange conclusion
of Philo is explained by the fact that he did not know Hebrew, but only Greek. Regarding
the pronunciation of God’s name, Flavius Josephus (37-100 CE) gives a more reliable
witness because he was familiar with the Bible and was able to read it in Hebrew (he
explained that as belonging to a priestly family he had wanted to become a rabbi), in
addition, he wrote all his books in Aramaic then translated them later into Greek (The
Jewish War I:3). Contrary to Philo, Josephus says that some Jews (those who spoke
Hebrew) knew the proper name of God: when those people thought they had got clear of the enemy,
they snatched from them what they had brought with them, even while they had frequently entreated them,
and that by calling upon the tremendous name of God (The Jewish War V:438). Regarding the
pronunciation of God's name, Josephus writes: The high priest had his head dressed with a tiara of
fine linen embroidered with a purple border, and surrounded by another crown in gold which had in relief
the sacred letters; these ones are four vowels (The Jewish War V:235). This description is excellent;
moreover, it completes the one found in Exodus 28:36-39. However, as we know, there are
no vowels in Hebrew but only consonants. Regrettably, instead of explaining this apparent
abnormality, certain commentators influenced by the hypothetical form Yahweh mislead
the readers of Josephus by indicating in a note that this reading was “IAUE”, which is
absurd since the “four sacred letters (tetragrammaton)” had been written in paleo-Hebrew,
not in Greek16. In addition, this reading would imply to read IAUDE in Greek the name
YHWDH (Juda) whereas it is read IHUDA (Yehudah) in Hebrew.
16 Even in heaven, all proper names, like God's name (Rv 14:1) are still in Hebrew, not in Greek (Rv 9:11).
8

For those who know the Bible and history (unfortunately a small minority) the
comment of Josephus is strictly accurate. The Hebrew language of the 1st century was not
vocalized by vowel-points (appeared only after 500 CE), but by “mothers of reading (mater
lectionis)”, which were used as a basic way for vocalizing names, mainly proper names (as is
still the case today in Israel). At Qumran some names are written with a redundancy of
these vowels letters. Josephus speaks of phone-enta φωνήεντα “sounds17” which is translated
into “vowels”, because a consonant (which means in Latin: with a sound) needs a “sound” to
be pronounced. For example le letters: l, m, n, o (...) s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z are pronounced el, em,
en, ô (...) es, te, û, ve, ûû, ex, îî, ze. In old Hebrew, the principle of vocalization was simple and
easy to use: in order to pronounce consonants, the Hebrews used the "a" sound, for the
sound î/ê, they used the semi-consonant Y (I), for the sound û/ô, the semi-consonant W
(U) and for the sound â at the end of names, they used the letter H (A). For example the
name David is frequently written DWD (‫ )דוד‬in Hebrew and vocalized Dawid (‫)דָ וִד‬, but
sometimes it is also written DWYD (‫ )דויד‬and vocalized Dawîd (‫)דָ וִיד‬. Although this
vocalization system is fairly basic it gives good results, which are sometimes closer to the
Septuagint's text than to the Masoretic text (highlighted).
Reference Consonants Vowel letters MT LXX Not read (MT)
Gn 25:19 YṢḤQ IṢaḤaQ YiṢḤaQ Isaak YaṢḤaQ
Gn 26:34 YHWDYT IHUDIT YeHUDIT Ioudeit YaHaWeDaYaT
Gn 29:35 YHWDH IHUDA YeHUDaH Iouda YaHaWeDeH
Gn 46:13 PWH PUA PUaH Poua PuWeH
Gn 46:17 YŠWH IŠUA YiŠWaH Iesoua YaŠWeH
Ex 17:9 YHWŠ‘ IHUŠa‘ YeHOŠu‘a Iesou YaHaWeŠu‘a
Lv 26:42 Y‘QWB I‘aQUB Ya‘aQOB Iakôb Ya‘aQaWeB
Nb 26:23 PWH PUA PuWaH Poua PuWeH
Dt 3:21 YHWŠW‘ IHUŠUa‘ YeHOŠU‘a Iesoi YaHaWeŠU‘a
Jos 12:23 GWYM GUIM GOYiM Gôim GaWaYiM
Jg 10:1 PW’H PU’A PU’aH Poua Pa’WeH
Jg 16:4 DLYLH DaLILA DeLILaH Dalila DeLILeH
2Sa 12:25 YDYDYH IDIDIA YeDIDYaH Jeddedi YaDaYaDYeH
1Ch 2:38 YHW’ IHU’ YeHU’ Ieou YaHaWe’
1Ch 3:5 YRWŠLYM IRUŠaLIM YeRUŠaLaïM Ierousalem YaRaWeŠaLaïM
1Ch 11:26 DWDW DUDU DODO Dôdô DaWaDaW
1Ch 24:11 YŠW‘ IŠU‘a YeŠU‘a Iesou YaŠaWe‘a
1Ch 27:4 DWDY DUDI DODaY Dôdia DaWeDaY
Ezk 34:23 DWYD DUID DaWID Daüid DaWeYaD
2Ch 27:1 YRWŠH IRUŠA YeRUŠaH Ierousa YaRaWeŠeH
Mesha Stele YHWH IHUA YeHUaH (Ioua) YaHaWeH

Generally, specialists in ancient Hebrew consider that this simplistic system was
mainly used when the Hebrew language ceased to be spoken (from 539 BCE) but that it
did not exist before. For example, they argue that the Tetragram that appears in the Mesha
Stele (dated around 850 BCE) was to be vocalized Yahweh or Yahwoh, but absolutely not
Ihûâ. Once more, their statements are groundless and worse, they contradict facts. It is true
that after their return from exile, many Jews no longer knew Hebrew (Ne 13:24) and it is
for this reason that Daniel wrote his book in Aramaic (Dn 2:4), however the books of Ezra
and Nehemiah were written in the both languages. The Hebrew language has remained
read, written and spoken at least until 200 CE, for example, Bar Kokhba, who died in 135
CE, wrote several letters in Hebrew to his officers. As a result, the statement of Josephus
17 The Greek word phone, which is founded in telephone or phonetic, means “sound”.
 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 9

of his knowing the Bible in Hebrew is confirmed. In addition, the orthography of the
Aramaic portion of the Tell Fekherye Bilingual18 (dated around 850 BCE) proves that for a
long time three “vowel letters” were used: W for U, Y for I, and H for final A. For
example, numerous Aramaic words vocalized into syllabic cuneiform were read “according
to their natural reading” in this old inscription, not consonantal19. As a general rule the
‘natural reading’ was mainly used to vocalize proper names.
Writing Reading Not read Writing Reading Not read
ṬBH ṬaBA ṬaBeH BTNWR BaTaNUR BaTaNaWaR
TYṬB TIṬaB TaYaṬaB YGTZR YiGTiZaR YaGTiZaR
DMWT’ DaMUTa’ DaMaWaTa’ ‘DQWR ‘aDaQUR ‘aDaQaWaR
GWGL GUGaL GaWaGaL YLQḤ YiLQaḤ YaLQaḤ
’LYM ’aLIM ’aLaYaM NHR NaHaR NaHaR
TṢLWTH TaṢLUTA TaṢLaWaTA LMT LaMaT LaMaT
WLKBR WaLaKaBaR WaLaKaBaR RḤMN RaḤMaN RaḤMaN

Alphabetic Syllabic Akkadian Not read MT LXX reference

ḤBWR Ḫa-bur ḤaBUR ḤaBaWaR ḤaBOR Abôr 2K 18:11
NYRGL Ne-iri-gal NIRGaL NIRGaL NeRGaL Nerigêl 2K 17:30
GWZN Gu-za-ni GUZaN GaWaZaN GOZaN Gôzan 2K 18:11
HDDSKN Adad-si-ka-ni HaDaDSiKaN HaDaDSiKaN HaDaD-[-] Adad-[-] Gn 36:35
SSNWRY Šamaš-nu-ri SaS-NURI SaS-NaWaRaY SiS-[-] Sos-[-] 1Ch 2:40
YBL‘M Ye-be-le-‘a-mu (Egyptian) Yable‘am Yible‘am Ieblaam Jg 1:27
YHWH I-eh-u-a YiHUA YaHaWeH Yehowah Iooa

Consequently when Josephus explained that God's name was written with four
vowel letters, his comments involves the vocalization: Y-H-W-H = I-eH-U-A because the
letter H is used as a vowel only at the end of names (the letter aleph ’ is sometimes used to
mark the vowel A within some names). The transcription of this name into Greek has two
difficulties: the letter H does not exist in Greek and the brief sound called shewa (e)
corresponding into English to the apostrophe (') in e'vry (every), is difficult to restore. The
translators of the Septuagint have generally transcribed the shewa (e) as an epsilon (e) or
nothing. Given these difficulties, the Hebrew vocalization of the name I-eH-U-A can be
transcribed into Greek as Ieôa (Ιεωα), Ioua (Ιουα) or Iooa (Ιωα), because the Greek sound u
was pronounced ü (like the French u) not û (ou).
Have we found some of these Greek transcriptions of God’s name (YHWH)? Yes,
but unfortunately in very small numbers and above all, what is puzzling, with two kinds of
vocalization, one Ieôa/Iôa and another Iaô/Iaoue. Instead of trying to understand this
apparent anomaly, experts choose the second (Iaô) arbitrarily assuming that the
vocalization I(e)ôa is unreliable. The choice Iaô (ΙΑω), used to justify the vocalization
Yahwoh, is mainly based on a manuscript of the Septuagint (below) dated around 100 BCE
found at Qumran. This vocalization being confirmed (around 50 BCE) by Diodorus of
Sicily (90-20 BCE), a Greek historian, and
Terentius Varro (116-27 BCE), an ancient
Roman scholar and writer. In addition, the
famous scholar Jerome (347-419 CE), who
translated the Hebrew Bible into Latin, wrote
that the Tetragram was pronounced Iaho.
18 D.N. FREEDMAN, A.D. FORBES, F.I. ANDERSEN – Studies in Hebrew and Aramaic Orthography
in: Biblical and Judaic Studies vol.2 (Indiana 1992) Ed. University of California, pp. 137-170.
19 For example the word YHWDH is read IHUDA (vowel letters) in Hebrew but YaHuWDaH (consonantal) in Arabic. Similarly the

name YHWḤNN is read IeHOḤaNaN (John) in Hebrew but YaḤ(aNaN)yah in Arabic.

10

It is obvious that Iaô is the Greek transcription of the Hebrew substitute: YHW
read Yahû ("Yah himself", which was pronounced “Yahoo”) and not the transcription of
the Tetragrammaton (YHWH pronounced “Adonay”) for the following reasons:
Ø We would have to admit it strange that Varro and Diodorus who were both pagans and
knew neither Hebrew nor the Bible, knew the pronunciation of God's name while the
New Testament writers who were Jewish and knew the Bible, even the high priest (Jo
18:15; Ac 9:1-2), did not know its pronunciation! To avoid this absurd conclusion, some
claim that the early Christians had replaced God’s name by “Lord (Kurios)” but this
statement generates a new absurdity because the New Testament never mentions such
an innovation (which would have been crucial, the least we can say), on the contrary it
continues even to mention the short form Yah in the famous expression Alleluia
(“Praise Yah”). For example, the apostle John wrote (c. 98 CE): And I heard a sound like
that of many multitudes, and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty thunders
saying, “Hallelujah! For THE LORD JEHOVAH God Almighty reigns (Revelation 19:6,
Aramaic Bible in Plain English). In the oldest copies (dated c. 150 CE) it is written in
Greek: “Alleluia” and “ Ks (unpronounceable)”, not “Praise the Lord” and “Lord”.
Ø The phonetic evolution from Iaô into Iô- is impossible to prove, in contrast, the
shortening of I(e)ôa into Iô- (or sometimes Ie- as in “Jesus” or “Jehu”) is widely attested
in theophoric names. For example the name "John" is written Iôannes in Greek (Rv 1:4)
and comes from the Hebrew name Yehôḥanan "Yehô[-] has been gracious", which is a
combination of two Hebrew words: Yehow[ah] and ḥanan "He has been gracious". The
first word Yehô- has been transcribed Iô- in Greek and the second word ḥanan has been
transcribed either annes or annas (Lk 3:2). Consequently if Iaô (Yahwoh) was God’s
name, the Hebrew name Yahôḥanan (John) would have been transcribed Ia[ô]annes in
Greek or Iannes (i.e. Yann), like in 2 Timothy 3:8 (Jannes). This transformation is
impossible since in the Septuagint all names beginning with Yehô- are always transcribed
Iô- and those beginning with Yah- are transcribed Ia-20, without any exception.
Ø The abbreviation Yehowah >> Yehow(ah) >> Y(eh)ow(ah), is well documented in
Hebrew, which would correspond in Greek to the following: I(e)ôa >> Iôa >> Iô(a).
Similarly, the Hebrew substitute Yahû could be accurately transcribed Iaou or Iaoo/Iaô
into Greek. As a result, God's name Yehowah, its substitute Yahû and its abbreviation
Yah, from Y(ehow)ah, are accurately transcribed into Greek by: I(e)ôa for Yehowah
(YHWH), Iaô for Yahû (YHW) and Ia for Yah (YH). In contrast, if Yahwoh was God's
name, the transcriptions Ieôa and Iôa are impossible to explain (except by magic). In
addition some variations in Greek transcriptions can be explained easily in an Aramaic
context because in this language the names YHW and YW were pronounced identically
before 200 BCE: Yahû and Yaw, since the letter H was inaudible. This fact can be
verified in that all theophoric names which ended in -yahû in Judaea, where Hebrew was
spoken, were written -yaw in territories outside Judaea21 (Samaria) where Aramaic was
spoken. Actually, it is thought that there were two periods for Aramaic: from 700 to 200
BCE there was an official Aramaic, which became from 200 BCE to 200 CE middle
Aramaic. Hebrew encountered approximately the same periods when the Hebrew of the
second temple became rabbinical Hebrew or Mishnaic Hebrew. The main changes
concerned precisely the pronunciation of the letters Y and W (ay >> ê, aw >> ô, hû >>
ô/w, êhû >> aw, etc.)22. The end result was that the pronunciation of the letter W in
20 Jahdai (1Ch 2:47); Jahaz (Nb 21:23; Dt 2:32; Jos 21:36; Jg 11:21; 1Ch 6:78; Is 15:4; Jer 48:21,34); Jehalelel (1Ch 19:12).
21 A. MENDEL – Épigraphie et paléographie israélites aux IXème et VIIIème siècles avant notre ère
Paris 2003, Ed. Sorbonne, pp. 1-161.
22 J.A. FITZMYER – A Wandering Aramean

California 1979 Ed. Scholars Press pp. 61,82 §95,181 §69.

 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 11

Aramaic varied successively in time: w >> v >> b, rendered in Greek by: û >> ô/ü >> b.
For example, the Aramaic word Yaw (‫)י ָו‬, corresponding in Hebrew to Yahû (‫)י ָהוּ‬,
progressively became in Greek: (Iaou) >> Iaô >> Iaüe >> Iabe. Furthermore, the
existence of the Aramaic substitute Yaw (Yaû), explains an amazing anomaly in the
Hebrew numbering system. When the Jews changed their system of numbering between
the 3rd and the 1st century BCE (numbers were written in full before), they modified the
numbers “fifteen” and “sixteen”. Instead of using YH (10+5) and YW (10+6) to
represent these numbers, they used in their place TW (9+6!) and TZ (9+7!).
If biblical experts knew the historical background of the Bible more than its
religious background which depends on their religion, they could have easily identified the
Greek name Iaô with the ancient Hebrew substitute Yahû, not with God’s name Yehowah.
First of all one should be aware that the Israelites commonly used and pronounced God's
name before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, as confirmed by archaeology.
For example, some writings dated around 800 BCE have been found At Kuntillet Ajrud,
near the Sinai; they contain
either the name YHW or
YHWH. The inscription
below reads: to Obadyaw son of
Adnah may he be blessed by Yhw
(l‘bdyw bn ‘dnh brk h’ lyhw)
One can also read the following sentences: I bless YOU by Yhwh of Samaria and by
[his] asherah (brkt ’tkm lyhwh Šmrn wl’šrth); I bless you by Yhwh of Teman and by [his] asherah (’t
brktk lyhwh tmn wl’šrth), asherah being a sacred pole, tree or totem (Dt 16:21-22); and let Yhw
give unto him as to his heart (wntn lh yhw klbbh); does good, Yhwh (hytb yhwh)

Dated c. 775 BCE, a seal was found with the following inscription: Miqneyaw servant
of Yhwh / to Miqneyaw servant of Yhwh (mqnyw ‘bd yhwh / lmqnyw ‘bd lyhwh).

What is noticeable in these inscriptions is that these theophoric names end in -yaw
and not in -yahû. How can this anomaly be explained? The reason is simple: the name Yaw
was pronounced in fact yaû, which is a phonetic equivalent of yahû, because the h was
hardly audible, especially in an Aramaic context. Indeed, one observes this anomaly only in
inscriptions found outside Judaea, because in this territory theophoric names were always
written with -yahû at the end not with -yaw. It is thought that Judaeans spoke a more correct
Hebrew than the Hebrews of the North (Samaria) whose language was more relaxed. At
Khirbet el-Qom, about 30 km south-west
of Jerusalem, an epitaph dated c. 750 BCE
was discovered, with the inscription:
Uriyahu the rich has written it, blessed be Uriyahu
by Yhwh (‘ryhw h’šr ktbh brk ‘ryhw lyhwh).
12

Hebrew inscriptions (dated c. 700 BCE) may be read on the walls of a burial cave at
Khirbet Beit Lei near Jerusalem. The Tetragram appears in the following sentences (below
left)23: Save us [Y]hwh // Yhwh the god of the whole earth (...) be merciful forgive Yh Yhwh. A
limestone scaraboid (dated c. 700 BCE) found at Mamillah24, near Jerusalem, reads (below
right): Belonging to Yehowah ḥen, daughter of Paqu‘oth (‫)יהוהחנ בת פקעת‬. A bullae from Samaria25
(dated c. 690 BCE), reads (right): [The] name of Yhwh on Manasseh (šm yhwh ‘l mnšh).

Two silver plaques have been found at Ketef Hinnom (near Jerusalem) dated 650-
600 BCE. On plaque II there are 3 Tetragrams, both contain the famous priestly blessing26
recited in the temple for Yom Kippur. The exact quotation of Numbers 6:24-26 in an
amulet shows that the Bible was known and read since several centuries. As the Bible was
read only in the temple and in Hebrew, it is unreasonable to expect finding any evidence
outside Israel, because Hecataeus of Abdera, a Greek historian and sceptic philosopher,
was the first who mentioned the Bible, he wrote (315-305 BCE): at the end of their laws there is
even appended the statement: These are the words that Moses heard from God and declares unto the Jews.
Plaque II Plaque I

The priestly blessing (Nb 6:24-26) is highlighted in blue in the translation thereafter:
23 A few letters are hard to read but the two words Yh Yhwh are clearly legible.
24 R. DEUTSCH – Three Hebrew Seals from the Iron Age Tombs at Mamillah, Jerusalem
in: Essays on Ancient Israel in Its Near Eastern Context (Eisenbrauns 2006), pp. 316-318.
25 R. DEUTSCH – New bullae: “The Name of Yahweh on Manasseh”

in: Haivrit Weaḥyoteha Vols. 2-3 (Haifa 2002-2003) p. 183.

26 G. BARKAY, A.G. VAUGHIN, M.J. LUNDBERG, B. ZUKERMAN – The Amulets from Ketef Hinnom: A New Edition and Evaluation

in: Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 334 (2004) pp. 41-71.
 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 13

1. [may he] be blessed 1. Yehow[ah ..]

2. [-] by Yehowah 2. ...
3. the helper and 3. grea[t .. who keeps]
4. the rebuker of 4. the covenant and
5. Evil. May bless you 5. Graciousness toward those who love
6. Yehowah, may 6. [hi]m and those who keep [his]
7. he keep you 7. [commandments] ...
8. May he make shine 8. [?]
9. Yehowah his face 9. blessing more than any
10. upon you and 10. [sna]re and more than Evil.
11. grant you 11. For redemption is in him.
12. peace 12. For Yehowah
13. 13. is our restorer [and]
14. 14. rock. May bless
15. 15. you Yehowah and
16. 16. [may he] keep you. [May] he
17. 17. make shine Yehowah
18. 18. [his] face [upon you ..]

A few ostraca have been discovered at the site of Tell Arad. These texts date from
700 to 600 BCE. For example in ostracon N°18 we find the following text:

1) ’l ’dny.’ly To my lord Elia-

2) šb.yhwh yš -shib may Yhwh seek
3) ’l lšlmk.w‘t your welfare. And now
4) tn.lšmryhw give to Shemaryahu

9) byt.yhwh temple of Yhwh

A few ostraca of the same period have been found at the site of Lakish dated c. 600
BCE with the following inscription on ostracon N°2 (this inscription agrees with the
events which were described in Jeremiah 34:6-7).
1) ’l ’dny.y’wš yšm‘
2) yhwh ’t ’dny. šm‘t šl
3) m.‘t kym ‘t kym my.‘bd
4) k klb ky.zkr ’dny ’t.
5) [‘]bdh.ybkr.yhwh ’t’

1) To my lord Yoash May 2) Yhwh

make my lord hear to a news of peace
3) in this very day, in this very day.
Who is your servant, 4) a dog, in order
for my lord to remember his servant? 5)
May Yhwh allow my lord ...
14

Consequently the Tetragram was widely used in daily life until 600 BCE. From an
archaeological point of view, the Tetragram disappeared just after the destruction of the
first temple (c. 600 BCE), except in the Bible. In the period from 900 to 600 BCE about 40
Tetragrams can be found. Thus, the Tetragram played a major role in worship, even
though, as indicated in the Bible, the short name Yah was also used alone. The only
difference is with regard to the divine name Yahû, which was never used on its own in the
Bible but only at the end of theophoric names. Furthermore the spelling of this name is
always -yahû in the Bible. The main reason for this exception is that Yahû is a constructed
form Yah-hû’. As a result, this name was used for less formal occasions as in theophoric
names or in engravings on jars. For example, several jars have been found dated around
750 BCE with names Yah and Yahû stamped on them. Notice that these names are
sometimes preceded by the Hebraic particle L which means “to, for” implying that these
objects were intended for the Temple, perhaps as tithes. In a few cases the name YHW,
during the period of the second temple, is surmounted by a Hebrew symbol which
means “shekel”, that is the collection for the sanctuary (Ex 30:13). During this period there
are also some parallel inscriptions of LMLK which means “to the king”. One notices also
that the letter H is sometimes written backwards and deformed, imitating its Aramaic
equivalent. From this we can conclude that the Aramaic language had to begin influencing
the Hebraic language very early, in its pronunciation as well as its writing.

Yah to Yah Yahû to Yaw

The pronunciation of YHW and YW had to be similar because an engraving found
at Tell Djedeideh has the double spelling27 -yahû/-yaw:
Shebanyahû Azaryahû (‫)שׁבניהו עזריהו‬
Shebanyaw Azaryaw (‫)שׁבניו שׁבניו‬
The destruction of the first Temple had significant consequences for worship and
later the pronunciation of the Name. As archaeology confirms, before this destruction the
Name was widely used by the Hebrews, but, as Maimonides pointed out, it also confirms
that the Name did not possess any mystical power. Knowing the proper pronunciation was
for the Hebrews neither a material advantage, nor a protection against their enemies. For
example, when Pharaoh Necho defeated King Josiah (c. 600 BCE) then established Eliakim
“God will raise up” as vassal and perhaps as provocation, changed his name to Jehoiakim
“Yehô will raise up”. This proves that Necho knew the great name of the God of the
Hebrews (2K 23:34). Some years later, in a similar way and in the same context, the
Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar would establish as vassal King Mattanyah “gift of Yah”
and change his name to Zedekiah “rightness of Yah”. This proves that Nebuchadnezzar
knew the divine name, but only the more familiar form Yah, and not the form of the great
name (2K 24:17).
It is easy to understand the chain of events after the destruction of the Temple. For
the Hebrew people it was a terrible humiliation to be defeated by pagans. Likely at this time
they took good care in the use of the holy name in order not to profane it (Ezk 36:20,21;
Mal 1:6) and they surely remembered previous warnings on the subject (Is 52:5; Am 6:10).
J.A. FITZMYER – A Wandering Aramean
27

California 1979 Ed. Scholars Press pp. 61,82 §95,181 §69.

 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 15

It is noteworthy that after the return from exile even the prophets avoided using the Name
with non-Jews. For example, Daniel used the Tetragram (Dn 1:2 9:2-20) but he used
several substitutes with non-Jews: God in the heavens (Dn 2:28), Revealer of secrets (Dn 2:29),
God of heaven (Dn 2:37,44), the Most High (Dn 4:17,24,32), the heavens (Dn 4:26). In the same
way Ezra (who died around 400 BCE) and Nehemiah used the Tetragram with the Jews
(Ezr 3:10,11 8:28,29; Ne 4:14 8:9) but they used several substitutes with non-Jews: God (Ezr
5:17), the great God (Ezr 5:8), God of the heavens (Ezr 5:12; Ne 2:4,20), God of the heavens and the
earth (Ezr 5:11). Furthermore, these non-Jews no longer used the Tetragram in their
answers to the prophets. Cyrus was probably the last (just after 539 BCE) who used the
name Jehovah (Ezr 1:2). In the book of Esther there is no Tetragram, but the last book
(Malachi) written for the Jews, contains it.
Another very important consequence of the destruction of the first temple is the
Jews’ 70 years of captivity in Babylonia during which time the people learnt Aramaic. Thus,
from this period some parts of the Bible were written in this language (Dn 2:4-7:28; Ezr
4:8-6:18 7:12-28). Therefore, when the Jews came back to Jerusalem, many of them had
forgotten their mother tongue (Ne 13:24). Hence, to make the Bible more readable, around
450 BCE, Ezra changed the old Hebrew characters into Aramaic characters or “modern
Hebrew” (Talmud Sanhedrin 21b) and to help the people to understand, read the text and
explained it (Ezr 7:6; Ne 8:8,9). On the other hand, the old Hebrew style was retained by
the Samaritans in their writings (Ezr 4:7-10).
Stamps Seals
Despite the fact that the Jews of the
time of Ezra had abandoned their former d
writing, paleo-Hebrew, to square Hebrew w
characters, they continued, out of nostalgia, to
use the former script for prestigious
h
inscriptions such as coins, seals, and of course y
to write the divine names. However, the
influence of Aramaic, which affected slightly the pronunciation of Hebrew also affected its
writing28. One can moreover observe, in the study (above) of inscriptions on stamps and
seals, a wide variety of shapes in paleo-Hebrew29. This variety is less evident on the seals
than on the stamps. No doubt, this conservatism in seals exists because they were made by
professional “printers”. Among the hundred jars with the divine names stamped on them,
dated between 500 and 300 BCE, about 60 have
the name YH and 40 the name YHW30. At first,
these stamps were read Yah (YH) and Yahû
(YHW), but under the influence of Israeli
specialists, all these stamps are now both read
Yehud YH and YHD despite two implausibilities31:
the name YHD (Yehud) would have been
shortened into YH (= Yehud!), which is
unprecedented, and the province of Yehud would
28 N. AVIGAD - A New Class of Yehud Stamps
in: I.E.J. vol.7 n°3 1957 pp. 146-153.
29 C.C. MCCOWN - Tell En-Nasbeh, Archaeological and Historical Results

New Haven 1947 Ed A.S.O.R. pp. 156-174 pl. 57.

30 Y. AHARONI - Excavations at Ramath Rahel 1954

in: I.E.J. vol.6 n°3 (1956) pp. 144-151.

Y. AHARONI - Excavations at Ramath Rahel 1961-62
Roma 1964 Ed. Centro di studi semitici pp. 20-46 pl.19,20.
31 C.E. CARTER – The Emergence of Yehud in the Persian Period

in: JSOT n°294 (1999, Sheffield Academic Press), pp. 22-29.

16

have appeared around 750 BCE, date of the oldest inscriptions, whereas historically the
province has appeared only after 539 BCE32 because after the fall of Jerusalem (587 BCE),
the province of Judea was governed by inspectors or superintendents not by governors.
An Aramaic seal33 (opposite figure), dated c. 550 BCE, with
the inscription: Inspector of Judaea (LPQD YHD), shows the precision
of biblical terms, because the Bible makes a distinction between the
inspector’s title PQD (paqid), which Gedaliah received (2K 25:19-23)
and the governor’s title PḤH (peḥah), that was first received by
Zerubbabel (Hg 1:14) then by all his successors (Ne 5:15). This
inscription is easy to read, because the two letters D and W cannot
be confused. Although Babylonians may have preferred to use the
expression Yehud (YHD) for the name Yehudah (YHWDH), the
Jews of Egypt, on the other hand, from the 5th to 3rd century BCE, preferred to write this
name in “full writing” as YHWDH or YHWD, but rarely YHD34. In addition, one would
have to suppose that there was an evolution of the writing of the proper name YHWDH in
full writing read Yehûdâ, as on Arad (ostracon n°40)35, dated around 750 BCE, into the
name Yehud (YHD)36 written defectively, which goes against normal evolution and would
constitute a unique event of reverse evolution. Then, it would be necessary to suppose that
the Jews preferred in this case to use a foreign script, paleo-Aramaic, rather than their own
paleo-Hebrew37. This would be contrary to the fact that, out of nationalism, the Jews
always favoured their former type of writing, paleo-Hebrew, on their coins, at least until
Bar-Kochba's revolt in 135 CE.
The resemblance between the Aramaic name Yehud (YHD) and the Hebrew name
Yahû (YHW) certainly favoured the emergence of the Hebrew name Yehud (Judea) on
stamps and coins, because, as seen, this defective spelling in Hebrew is abnormal.
Furthermore, when in observing the chronological frequency of these two names, one
notices that, at about the 3rd century BCE, there is a reversal of the trend, with inscriptions
of Yehud (YHD) replacing inscriptions of Yahû (YHW). The confusion in reading between
Yahû and Yehud began when coins that actually were marked Yehud (YHD/ YHDH)
were found. For example, at present all the stamps below (1 to 5) are read Yehud!

YHW (1) YHW (2) YHD (3) YHD (4) YHWD (5)
YHW‘ZR
Paleo-Hebrew Paleo-Hebrew PḤR’ (Paleo-Aramaic)
32 After the fall of Babylon the jurisdictional district of Judah (Ezr 5:8) with its governors appeared (Hg 1:1). One can note that the

Hebrew name Yehudah (Ezr 4:6) is pronounced Yehud in Aramaic (Ezr 7:14).
33 A. CAQUOT -Charges et fonctions en Syrie-Palestine

in: Comptes rendus de Janvier-Mars 1986 (Paris. Éd. Académie des Inscriptions & Belles-Lettres), pp. 305-307.
34 B. PORTEN A. YARDENI - Textbook of Aramaic Documents from Ancient Egypt, 1 Letters.

1989 Ed. Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities pp. 67-70.

B. PORTEN A. YARDENI - Textbook of Aramaic Documents from Ancient Egypt, 3 Literature
1993 Ed. Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities pp. 258-259.
35 G.I. DAVIES - Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions, Corpus and Concordance

Cambridge 1991 Ed. Cambridge University Press, pp. 25,364-365.

36 J. NAVEH - The Development of the Aramaic Script

in: Proceedings of the Israel academy of sciences and humanities vol.5 Jerusalem 1976 pp. 1-59.
37 U. RAPPAPORT - The First Judean Coinage

in: Journal of Jewish Studies 32 (1981), pp. 1-17.

J. NAVEH - Early History of the Alphabet
Jerusalem 1982 Ed. The Magnes Press pp. 112-119.
 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 17

Even without being an expert, one can note an aberration in reading. Stamps n°3
and 4 are read YeHuD (YHD) because they are written in paleo-Hebrew38. Stamp n°5 is
read YeHUD (YHWD) because it is written in paleo-Aramaic. By observing closely, one
sees that the shape of the letter H is different, yet this shape is typical because at this time
there is no confusion of letters in paleo-Aramaic39. Therefore, in stamps n°1 and 2, the H
cannot be paleo-Aramaic but only paleo-Hebrew. So, if one letter is written in paleo-
Hebrew the rest of the word would be too, because it would absolutely be illogical to
suppose that a writer wrote the letters of stamp using two different scripts.
As result, although the Tetragram YHWH disappeared after 600 BCE (except in
the Bible), the two other divine names Yah (YH) and Yahû (YHW) remained in use until
300 BCE. For example numerous Aramaic papyri,
written in Aramaic by Jews from 514 to 398 BCE, have
been found in the towns of Elephantine40 containing
the names: YHW very often (opposite figure), YHH
sometimes (it has also been found in 12 ostraca41) and
YH once42, but none with YHWH. However, the verbal
form yhwh “it will be (yiheweh)” was used without problem like in the following phrase: If they
do this until the temple is rebuilt, it will be (yhwh) a righteous deed on your part before the God Yahû
(Yhw), more so than if one were to offer him burnt offerings43.
Some scholars read however the two names YHW and YHH in the same way.
Based on the hypothesis that these two names are identical in pronunciation, they deduce
that only sound common to the two final matres lectionis is the sound ô, because the letter W
can be read in vowel either û or ô, and the H final can be read or â or sometimes ô. This
hypothesis is wrong, for at least two reasons. In the first place, while Hebrew does
exceptionally encounter the anomaly of a final H vocalized ô, this peculiarity does not exist
in Aramaic44, the language in which these letters are written. Secondly, as the letter H had
become almost inaudible, it was frequently doubled, as in the feminine suffix of the third
person singular, written interchangeably H/ YH/ YH’/ YHH45. Thus, in Aramaic, the
pronunciations: Yâ (YH), Yah (YHH) and Ya’ (Y’) were the same. It is of note that all the
theophoric names found at Elephantine are written with a rather free spelling (phonetic in
fact), which contrasts enormously with the rigor of the Masoretic text. In an Aramaic
context, the authors of these missives wanted to dissociate the divine name YH from the
vocative particle YH meaning “Oh!” as these two words are homonyms in Aramaic. What
is more, it had the advantage of making the H more audible. One finds these same
38 E. STERN - The Material Culture of the Land of the Bible in the Persian Period
Jerusalem 1973 Ed. I.E.S. pp. 200-205.
M. KOCHMAN -“Yehud Medinta” in the Light of the Seal Impression
in: Cathedra 24 (Jerusalem 1982 Ed. Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi Publications) pp. 4-29.
39 F. MOORE CROSS - Judean Stamps

in: Eretz-Israel vol.9. Jerusalem 1969 Ed. I.E.S. pp. 20-27.

Y. MESHORER, S. QEDAR -The Coinage of Samaria in the Fourth Century BCE
in: Numismatic Fine Arts International. Jerusalem p. 43.
40 P. GRELOT -Documents Araméens d'Égypte

in: Littératures anciennes du Proche Orient n°5 (Paris 1972 Ed. Cerf).
J.A. FITZMYER -A wandering Aramean
California 1979, Ed. Scholars Press, pp. 219-230.
41 A. DUPONT-SOMMER - Yaho et Yaho-Sebaoth sur les ostraca araméens inédits d'Éléphantine

in: Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 91:1 (1947), pp. 175-191.
42 B. PORTEN A. YARDENI - Textbook of Aramaic Documents from Ancient Egypt, 2 Contracts

Jerusalem 1989, Ed. Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities pp. XLIV,64,74,75.
43 J.M. LINDENBERGER – Ancient Aramaic and Hebrew Letters Volume 4

Atlanta 1994, Ed. Scholars Press, pp. 63-68,82-84.

44 F.I. ANDERSEN A.D. FORBES -Spelling in the Hebrew Bible

Rome 1986 Ed. Biblical Institut p. 324.

45 E. QIMRON -The Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls

in: Harvard Semitic studies n°29 (Atlanta 1986 Ed. Scholars Press), p. 23 §100.7 p. 58 §322.
18

fluctuations in the biblical text, which indicates by a point inside the letter (mappiq) if the
final H must be pronounced or not. In the Bible all theophoric names ending in -yah are
written without mappiq with the exception of Yedidyah (2S 12:25) and should thus be
pronounced -yâ (‫)י ָﬣ‬. On the other hand, the divine name Yah alone is always written with a
mappiq except in Song of Solomon 8:6, and should be pronounced Yâh (‫ )י ָהּ‬not Yâ.
These subtleties of pronunciation are without consequence in any case as to the
meaning, or even the pronunciation of these words. It simply shows that the Masoretes
wanted to keep all the nuances which had been passed on to them by tradition. Hence, they
noted that word Yah could sometimes be pronounced Yiah (‫ )יּ ָהּ‬as in Psalms 94:7,12;
118:18, etc46. Those that would pronounce the name YHH as YaHô, must remember that
in the Bible there are no names ending in -HH which are vocalized -Hô. The names ending
by -HH are always vocalized -Hâ, as Bilhâ (Gn 29:29), Yogbehâ (Nb 32:35), etc. In
addition, at Qumrân, words ending by -HH are always vocalized either -Hâ, or âH.
At the beginning of the 3rd century most people in Judea spoke Aramaic, and most
tradesmen also spoke Greek. The Jewish aristocracy spoke Greek and Hebrew but this
latter language was probably a little different to the Biblical Hebrew, just as common
Greek, or Koine is a little different from literary Greek. Thus, in order to improve the
people’s comprehension, the Hebrew text of the Bible was paraphrased in Aramaic. This
vernacular translation was called the Targum. Mainly to help the Greek speaking Jews of
the Diaspora, a Greek translation of the Pentateuch, the
Septuagint was made around 280 BCE. It is noteworthy that,
given the name Yahû was still used by Jewish people at this
time, "to protect" this substitute for the Tetragram, all
theophoric names ending with yahû were modified to ia or iou,
according to the preference of the translator induced by Greek
declensions. Thus, in the Septuagint, in spite of thousands of
theophoric names, there are none ending in iaou. Furthermore
the number of theophoric names using yahû declines sharply
from this period on47. The Talmud (Yoma 39b) indicates that at
about the 3rd century BCE, at the time of high priest Simon the
Just, the use of the Tetragram was reserved for the Temple
only, and it specifies that in time even the divine names
stamped on jars would be removed to protect their holiness
(Shabbat 61b, ‘Arakin 6a). In addition, among all the
manuscripts of the Septuagint dated before 150 CE, the
Tetragram is always written in Hebrew in the Greek text.
According to the historic testimonies of the Talmud, the Letter of Aristeas, a
Hellenistic work probably written around 170-150 BCE, and Josephus (Jewish Antiquities
XII:43), the translation of the Septuagint and the disappearance of God’s name in Israel
were contemporary events, since all these accounts indicate that Ptolemy Philadelphus and
Simon the Just lived at the same moment48. Strangely, the famous scholar Augustine of
Hippo49 wrote that: Varro was rightly writing that the Jews worship the god Jupiter (deum Iudaeorum
Iouem putauit)! Augustine confused the name of Jupiter (Iovi, coin below) with God’s name
46 In the same way, they noted that word ‘divinity’ pronounced Eloah in Hebrew is both noted with a mappiq (Jb 3:4; 6:4; 16:21), or Eloa,
without a mappiq (Jb 4:9; 11:7; 15:8).
47 Z. ZEVIT - A Chapter in the History of Israelite Personal Names

in: B.A.S.O.R. 250 pp. 3-14.

48 R. MARCUS - Jewish Antiquities Books XII-XIII

Cambridge 1998 Ed. Loeb Classical Library pp. 462-466.

49 S. AUGUSTINI – De consensu evangelistarum

Paris 1845 Éd. Migne Patrologiæ Latina XXIV pp. 1055-1058.

 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 19

in Latin. Valerius Maximus, a Latin historian who was also a contemporary of Philo wrote
in his book, quoted by Ianuarius Nepotianus at the end of the fifth century, that in 139
BCE: Gnaeus Cornelius Hispalus, praetor peregrinus in the year of the consulate of Marcus Popilius
Laenas and Lucius Calpurnius, ordered the astrologers by an edict to leave Rome and Italy within ten
days, since by a fallacious interpretation of the stars they perturbed fickle and silly minds, thereby making
profit out of their lies. The same praetor compelled the Jews, who attempted to infect the Roman custom with
the cult of Sabazi Iovis, to return to their homes. However, as the Romans already worshipped the
god Jupiter (Iovi-pater) which was never the case for the Jews, this strange name Sabazi
Iovis must be an approximation for the Hebrew name “Sabaoth Iove”, which is a more
plausible conclusion50, because the Hebrew expression: YHWH Sabaoth "YHWH of
armies") was well known, it appears in the New Testament under the form Κ[υριο]ς
Σαβαωθ "L[or]d Sabaoth" in The New Testament (Ro 9:29; Jas 5:4)! Varro
(116-27 BCE) also explained in his book about the Latin language that the
name Ioua meant “Iovis’ girl”: Thus we do not say Jove or Jova to denote a son or
daughter of Jovis51 (De lingua latina IX:55).
The incident mentioned in 139 BCE proves that the God of the
Jews was not called Yahwoh (Yahû) because Valerius Maximus would have spoken of
"Sabaoth Iaho", not "Sabaoth Iovi". In fact, as supreme god the Jewish god had a position
similar to Jupiter (Zeus) as explains the letter of Aristeas (c. 150 BCE): They worship the same
God -—the Lord and Creator of the Universe, as all other men, as we ourselves, O king, though we call
him by different names, such as Zeus or Dis (...) the royal diadem full of glory with the name of God
inscribed in sacred letters on a plate of gold (§§15,98). The Jews therefore did not mention God's
name in public and consequently refused to vocalize it in the Greek text of the Septuagint
as we can see (below) in all the manuscripts dated before 150 CE. The Tetragram is written
in ancient Hebrew inside the Greek text.

How the Tetragram was pronounced, given that after the 2nd century BCE, the Jews
believed that the privilege to pronounce God's name was reserved only to the Temple and
50 M. SIMON– Jupiter-Yahvé Sur un essai de théologie pagano-juive
in: Numen Vol. 23:1 (1976) pp. 40-66.
51 contra deorum liberos et servorum non itidem, ut Iovis filium et filiam, Iovem et Iovam. The name "Ioue pater", which means "Jove father" in Latin,

became in time Iu-piter (Jupiter). The Latin letter “v” was pronounced “u”.
20

that one should not disclose the name to foreigners (Greek), as it is written in a Jewish
book dated to 50 BCE: And this became a hidden trap for mankind, because men, in bondage to
misfortune or to royal authority, bestowed on objects of stone or wood the name that ought not to be shared
(Wisdom of Solomon 14:21). The answer to this question depends on several important
factors: was the informant Jewish or not (like Pilatus), did he know Hebrew or only Greek
(like Cornelius), did he know any priests who were officiating in the Temple of Jerusalem
(like Josephus)? At that time, Hebrew language was known mainly by those who were
attending the Temple priests because people generally only spoke Aramaic: This became
known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their language Akeldama, that is,
“Field of Blood” (Ac 1:19). The word ḥaqel-dema’ is Aramaic because in Hebrew this word was
sadeh-hadam, as well the word sabaqtani (Mt 27:46) is Aramaic because in Hebrew we read:
azabtani (Ps 22:1). If one had asked Pilatus: what is the name of the god worshiped in the temple of
Jerusalem?, he would have answered as Livy, a Roman historian, when he commented
around 10 BCE on the taking of Jerusalem by general Pompey in 63 BCE: They (the Jews) do
not mention to which deity pertains the Temple at Jerusalem, not any image found there, since they do not
think the God partakes any figure (History of Rome CII)52.
According to Eusebius, there were translations of the Bible into Greek during the
4th century BCE (Preparation of the Gospel XIII:12), but the letter of Aristeas (§§312-316)
specifies that the quotations of these translations failed53. Even so, Greek prevailed very
early in synagogues, as proven by one of the earliest (dated 246-221 BCE) of the dedicatory
inscriptions54 from Schedia (near Alexandria). As a result from the very 3rd century BCE a
Greek proselyte could hear God's name during a reading of the Bible.

On behalf of king
Ptolemy and
queen
Berenice his sister
and wife and
their children,
the Jews (dedicate)
the place of prayer55

Given that God's name was embedded in a Greek text (LXX), the reader had to
know how YHWH was pronounced in Hebrew. We know that when the scribes made
copies of the Bible under dictation they sometimes confused the word Adonay with the
Tetragrams (YHWH) pronounced Adonay. This way of copying was inadvisable, because it
engendered errors, but as it saved time it was regrettably used. The Sopherim, who were
the precursors of the Masoretes, fortunately found these 134 places, as seen by reading the
Masoretical note of Genesis 18:3, where a Tetragram was replaced by Adonay. For
example, in the oldest scroll of Isaiah (1Qa), dated 150-100 BCE, 16 times "Adonay" took
place of the Tetragram. Many peculiarities from these scrolls may be explained56. The use
52 P. SCHÄFER – Judeophobia: Attitudes Toward the Jews in the Ancient World
Harvard 2009, Ed. Harvard University Press, pp. 36-39.
53 Theopompus (378-323) and then Theodektes (375-334) tried to translate the Bible, but they received “divine punishment, temporary

madness for the former and momentary cataracts for the latter”.
54 W. HORBURY, D. NOY - Jewish Inscriptions of Graeco-Roman Egypt

1992 Ed. Cambridge University Press, Inscription n°22, pp. 35-37.

55 The place of prayer was an elementary synagogue according to the text of Acts 16:13,16.
56 M DELCOR -Des diverses manières d'écrire le tétragramme sacré dans les anciens documents hébraïques

in: Etudes bibliques et orientales de religions comparées (Leiden 1979, Brill), pp. 1-29.
L.H. SCHIFFMAN -The Use of Divine Names
in: Sectarian Law in the Dead Sea Scrolls (Ed. Scholars Press), pp. 132-154.
 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 21

of paleo-Hebrew, which was sometimes also used to write the Hebrew word El “God”
simply shows the extreme reverence with which the scribes treated divine names.
As one can see in the text
Psalms found at Qumran57 (Ps
129:4-130:6), God’s name Yah was
written normally while on the other
hand, the name YHWH was written
in paleo-Hebrew (framed),
furthermore, several times
“Adonay” (underlined) takes the
place of holy name YHWH. These
errors show that God's name was
sometimes replaced by Adonay
“My Lord”, Elohim “God” or Yah.
Other scrolls show that God's
name could also be replaced by a
special substitute Hû’â “He,
himself” or Yahû’ “Yah, himself”.
This multiplicity of substitutes (or
surrogates) shows that there was no
strict rule to read God's name but Adonay “My Lord” was the usual substitute except in
the expression ’DWNY YHWH which was read adônay elohîm “my Lord God” instead of
adonay adonay “My Lord, my Lord”. If a Jew did not speak Hebrew, but only Aramaic or
Greek, this multiplicity of substitutes prevented him from knowing the pronunciation of
God's name YHWH in the temple of Jerusalem.
Substitute Reading in Reading in Reading in Meaning Transcription from Greek
Hebrew (1) Aramaic (2) Arabic (3) (Hebrew) Hebrew Aramaic translation
’DWNY Adônay Mara’ Rabb My Lord Adonai Mara The Lord
YHW Yahû Yaw Yahuw Yah himself Iaô Iave Him, Yah
HW’H Hû’ah Huw’a Huw’ah Him Oua Uva Him
’LHYM ’Elohîm ’Elala’ ’Allah The god Eloim Eloa God
YHWH Yehowah Yahweh Yahwah YHYH YHWH YYY -

As a result, when a Jewish reader was reading a text of the Septuagint he could use
several substitutes. For example, the Greek phrase "the lord YHWH", corresponding to
the Hebrew ’adônay Yehowah (’dwny yhwh), could be read either “the lord Lord (kurios kurios)”
or “the lord God (kurios o theos)”, but also “the lord Adonai” or “the lord Iaô”. Despite the
complexity of this substitution system, a Greek listener could distinguish the name of God
read as “Lord (Kurios)” from its title read in a slightly different way: “the lord (o kurios)”.
Besides, Christian writers58 cautiously avoided causing confusion between YHWH
(indicated by “Lord” and “The God”), and Jesus (indicated by “The Lord” and “God”).
Thus the presence or the absence of the article permitted the reader59 to know whom they
were speaking about “the Lord” (Jesus) or “Lord” (YHWH). This subtlety, which
disappeared soon after the 2nd century CE, explains the multiplicity, apparently
57 J.P. SIEGEL -The Employment of Palaeo-Hebrew Characters for the Divine Names at Qumranin the Light of Tannaitic Sources
in: Hebrew Union College Annual n°42 (1971), pp. 159-172.
58 Clement of Rome c. 95 CE -Epistle to Corinthians (43:2,6; 45:7; 58:1; 59:2-3; 60:4); (?) c. 100 CE -The Didache (10:2-3; 14:3); Ignatius

of Antioch c. 115 CE -Letter to Ephesians (1:2; 3:1; 7:1), Letter to Magnesians (1:2), Letter to Philadelphians (10:1-2); Hermas c. 140 CE
-The Shepherd (9:9; 10:1; 11:5; 12:3; 23:4); Polycarp c. 150 CE -Letter to Philippians (10:3), The Martyrdom (14:1).
59 J.P. AUDET - La Didachè, instructions des apôtres

in: Études Bibliques (1958, Gabalda) pp. 188-191.

22

contradictory, of the testimonies about God's name.

v Aristeas wrote to Philocrates (c. 150 BCE): They (the Jews) worship the same God -—the Lord
and Creator of the Universe, as all other men, as we ourselves, O king, though we call him by different
names, such as Zeus (Iovi) or Dis (Letter of Aristeas §§15,98).
v Terentius Varro (c. 50 BCE), reported by Johannes Lydus (490-570): But the Roman
Varro, when discussing him, says that among the Chaldeans, in their mystical [writings], he is called
"Iaô," meaning "mentally perceived light" in the language of the Phoenicians, as Herennius [Philo]
says. And he is frequently called "Sabaôth," meaning the one who is "above the seven heavenly spheres"
—that is, the creator (De mensibus IV:53).
v Diodorus Siculus (c. 50 BCE): among the Jews Moyses referred his laws to the god who is invoked
as Iaô (The Library of History I:94:2).
v Livy (c. 10 BCE): The Jews do not mention to which deity pertains the Temple at Jerusalem, not any
image found there, since they do not think the God partakes any figure (History of Rome CII).
v Philo of Alexandria (c. 40 CE): there was a gold plaque shaped in a ring and bearing 4 engraved
characters of a name which had the right to hear and to pronounce in the holy place those ones whose
ears and tongue have been purified by wisdom, and nobody else and absolutely nowhere else. And this
holy prophet Moses calls the name, a name of four letters, making them perhaps symbols of the primary
numbers (De vita Mosis II:115,132).
v Dioscorides Pedanius (c. 80 CE): Wherever I am in the cosmos, which is subject to me, be thou
with me, lord God Iaô, Iaô (On the Peony XI:2).
v Flavius Josephus (c. 95 CE): The high priest had his head dressed with a tiara of fine linen
embroidered with a purple border, and surrounded by another crown in gold which had in relief the
sacred letters; these ones are four vowels (The Jewish War V:235).
The testimonies of Varro and Diodorus do not relate to God's name in Hebrew but
its substitute “Yahû” written Iaô in Greek or Iaho in Latin. “The Chaldeans” was the term
used at the time to designate any magicians. Those Chaldeans were ignoring Hebrew
because the name Yahû means “Yah, himself”, not “mentally perceived light”, and Sabaôth
means “armies”, not “above the 7 heavenly spheres”. The first-century medical author
Dioscorides60 (40-90) who mentions Iao’s name in a prayer among his books shows the
degree to which Iao’s name was known among the Greeks, and was also invoked by
them61. Lucius Apuleius (125-180) stressed the importance in worship of calling upon the
name of God, which had to be kept secret, as he explained in his book written (c. 155 CE)
for the defence of magic: For no thought of personal safety shall induce me to reveal to the uninitiated
the secrets that I have received and sworn to conceal (...) There he was initiated by their priests into the
mighty secrets of their ceremonies, passing all belief (...) Not content with these sciences, he next approached
the Chaldeans and the Brahmins, a race of wise men who live in India (Apologia §§ 56,184). The
Yahû substitute was mainly used in the synagogues of Palestine but very little in those
outside the country. It is noteworthy that many magicians, even among Jews, preferred
using the Hebrew name Yahû (YHW) rather than its usual substitute Adonay “my Lord”,
in order to increase the efficiency of their invocations.
The name Yahû (YHW) played a great role in Jewish esoterism as one can see in a
book written c. 80 CE: Go, Jaoel, and by means of my ineffable Name raise me yonder man, and
strengthen him (so that he recover) from his trembling.” And the angel came, whom He had sent to me, in
the likeness of a man, and grasped me by my right hand, and set me up upon my feet, and said to me:
“Stand up, [Abraham,] Friend of God who loves thee; let not the trembling of man seize thee! For, lo! I
have been sent to thee to strengthen thee and bless thee in the name of God—who loves thee—the Creator of
the celestial and terrestrial. Be fearless and hasten to Him. I am called Jaoel by Him who moves that which
60 Dioscorides, who studied under Areius of Tarsus, was known mainly for his extensive De materia medica, in which he lists the effects of

drugs employed in medicine and alludes to products of Judaea.

61 G.H. VAN KOOTEN - The Revelation of the Name YHWH to Moses. Leiden 2006, Ed. Brill, pp. 126-128.
 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 23

exists with me on the 7th expanse upon the firmament, a power in virtue of the ineffable Name that is
dwelling in me (The Apocalypse of Abraham X:3-7). The name of Jaoel is represented as a
being possessed of the power of the ineffable name, a function assigned in the Rabbinical
writings to Metatron, whose name is like unto that of God Himself (Sanhedrin 38b). The name
Yahoel “Yahô is God” is evidently a substitute for the ineffable name. A cryptic story in
the Babylonian Talmud states that: On the eve of every Shabbat, Judah HaNasi's pupils, Rab
Hanina and Rab Hoshaiah, who devoted themselves especially to cosmogony, used to create a delicious calf
by means of the Sefer Yetzirah, and ate it on the Sabbath (Sanhedrin 65b, 67b). The Sefer Yetzirah
(c. 150 CE), the earliest extant book on Jewish esotericism, reads62: With three of the simple
letters seal "above". Choose three and place them in His great Name: YHW. With them seal the six
extremities. Face upward and seal it with YHW (Sefer Yetzirah I:15). The great Name used in
Jewish magic was therefore YHW (Yahû), not YHWH (Yehûah), because the pronunciation
of God's name was prohibited to avoid blasphemy (Sanhedrin 101b). The comparison
(below) between the Jewish amulets written (from 150 to 400 CE) in Hebrew63 and Greek
confirms the equivalence between YHW (Yahû) and Iaô as well as YH (Yah) and Ia.

YH YHW YHW YH

As one can see among these samples (above), numerous amulets of this time,
written in Greek, contain the name Iaô, occasionally written backwards64. Sometimes other
names like: Ia, Sabaot/Sabao, Adonai, etc., are found, but the most frequently found in
these Greek amulets is Iaô65. Origen (185-253) who was the greatest textual critic of the
62 A.P. HAYMAN - Sefer Yesira: Edition, Translation and Text-critical Commentary
Tuebingen 2004, Ed. Mohr Siebeck, pp. 89-90.
63 J. NAVEH - A Recently Discovered Palestinian Jewish Aramaic Amulet

in: Arameans, Aramaic and the Aramaic literary tradition (Tel-Aviv 1983, Bar-Ilan University Press), pp. 81-88.
J. NAVEH, S. SHAKED - Amulets and magic bowls
Jerusalem 1985 Ed. Magnes Press pp. 40-61.
J.A. MONTGOMERY -Aramaic Incantation Texts from Nippur
Philadelphia 1913 Ed. University Museum, pp. 145-146,165,209-210.
64 K. PREISENDANZ -Papyri Graecae Magicae I

Leipzig 1928 II Berlin 1931 Stuttgart 1974 XVIIa 1-2.

65 M. PHILONENKO -L'anguipède alectorocéphale et le dieu Iaô

in: C.R.A.I.L. Paris 1979 Ed. Klincksieck pp. 297-304.

24

early Christian Church wrote (c. 250 CE): and from the Hebrew Scriptures him who is termed in
Hebrew Iaô or Jah, and Sabaoth, and Adonaeus, and Eloaeus. Now the names taken from the Scriptures
are names of one and the same God (Against Celsus VI:32). For Iaô means etymologically lifting up,
elation. Now the Word comes to men who formerly could not receive the advent of the Son of God who is the
Word (Commentary on John II:1). His comment shows66 that he was well aware of
substitutes for God's name but, despite the fact he was the most skilled Christian scholar of
his time, he did not know the genuine pronunciation of the Tetragram and he believed that
Iaô meant etymologically: “lifting up, elation” (instead of “Yah himself”).
Around the 4th century, Greek itself was supplanted by Latin. Thus Jerome (347-
419) began in 382 CE his new Latin translation of the Bible “The Vulgate” which officially
replaced the Old Latin (Vetus Latina), a Latin translation of the 2nd century. This famous
translator gave some worthwhile information in his commentary on Psalm 8:267: The name of
the Lord in Hebrew has four letters, Yod He Waw He, which is the proper name of God which some
people through ignorance, write ΠΙΠΙ [instead of ‫ ]יהוה‬in Greek and which can be pronounced Iaho. He
wrote in his prologue of the books of Samuel and Kings: That the Hebrews have 22 letters is
testified also by the Syrian and Chaldaaen languages, which for the most part correspond to the Hebrew; for
they have 22 elementary sounds which are pronounced the same way, but are differently written (...) and we
find the four-lettered name of the Lord [Tetragram] in certain Greek books written to this day in the
ancient characters (Prologus Galeatus). It is noteworthy that Jerome wrote the Tetragram can
be pronounced Iaho instead of is pronounced Iaho in Hebrew. If one collects all the historical
evidence regarding the pronunciation of God's name between 200 BCE and 400 CE, one
notices that they are mainly about the substitute Yahû (YHW) and not on the Tetragram
itself, which was pronounced inside the temple of Jerusalem (before 70 CE):
YHWH From To Author Source Date
Ieüô Phœnician Greek Sanchuniathon Phœnician History IV 200 BCE <
Iovi Hebrew Greek Aristeas Letter of Aristeas §§15,98 c. 150 BCE
Iaô Hebrew Greek Essenian? Pap. 4Q120 (4QLXXLevb) c. 100 BCE
Iao Hebrew? Latin Terentius Varro De mensibus IV:53 c. 50 BCE
Iaô Hebrew? Greek Diodorus The Library of History I:94:2 c. 50 BCE
- Hebrew? Latin Titus-Livius History of Rome CII c. 10 BCE
(Adonai) Hebrew Greek Philo of Alexandria De vita Mosis II:115,132 c. 40 CE
Iaô Hebrew? Greek Dioscorides Pedanius On the Peony XI:2 c. 80 CE
(Ieôa) Hebrew Greek Josephus Flavius The Jewish War V:235 c. 95 CE
‫יהוה‬/Ia Hebrew Greek Apostle John Book of Revelation XIX:1-3 c. 98 CE
Ieêouôa Aramaic? Coptic Egyptian Gnostic The Gospel of the Egyptians c. 150 CE
‫יהו‬ Hebrew Aramaic (Judah the Prince?) The Sefer Yetzirah I:15 c. 150 CE
Iaô Hebrew Greek Irenaeus of Lyons Against Heresies I:21:3 c. 170 CE
Yaüe Aramaic? Coptic Egyptian Gnostic The Apocryphon of John II:1,24 c. 180 CE
Iaoue Aramaic? Greek Clement of Alexandria The Stromata V:VI:34:5 c. 200 CE
Ieôa Hebrew Greek Papyrus of magic Pap. gr. CXXI l.528-540 c. 200 CE
Iao Hebrew Greek Tertullian Against the Valentinians XIV:3 c. 210 CE
Iaô Hebrew Greek Origen Against Celsus VI:32 c. 250 CE
(Ieûa) Hebrew Greek Evagrius Ponticus Onomastica sacra c. 380 CE
Iaho Hebrew Latin Jerome Commentary on Psalm 8:2 c. 400 CE

All of this evidence establishes the following reconstruction of events: from 150
BCE the Jews avoided pronouncing God's name in order not to profane it, they preferred
66 He directed the production of the massive Hexapla ("Sixfold"), an Old Testament in six columns: Hebrew, Hebrew in Greek
characters, the Septuagint, and the Greek versions of Theodotion, Aquila of Sinope, and Symmachus. He was one of the greatest biblical
scholars of the early Church, having written commentaries on most of the books of the Bible.
67 ST JEROME - S. Hieronymi presbyteri opera

in: Corpus Christianorum Series Latina vol. LXXII (Ed. Brepols 1959), p. 191.
 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 25

to use some substitutes like "the Lord", "God", "Yahû", “Hû’â”, etc. In the Essenian
community it was forbidden to pronounce the name of its leader (who was only named the
"Master of justice") as well as God's name, under excommunication penalty, in contrast
some substitutes like Hû'a “He, himself” or Yahû “Yah, himself” were authorized.
Obviously Philo of Alexandria and Josephus knew the system of substitutes, but given that
Philo didn't know Hebrew he was not able to give more information, in contrast, Josephus
knew Hebrew quite well, but as a former Pharisee he did not want to offend his fellow
Jews by unveiling the pronunciation of the Tetragram. If this pronunciation was Iaô he
would have given to his readers since it was already known before him, but Josephus knew
it was the substitute Yahû and not the Tetragram (Yahû was pronounced Yaw in Aramaic
hence the Greek forms Iaoue/ Iaüe). Although he does not literally gives the pronunciation
of the Tetragram, his information enable us to find it under the form I(e)ôa, which is
confirmed by several magical papyri. Indeed, if the pronunciation of God’s name was Iaô,
the forms Ieôa/ Ieêouôa have no reason to appear. Given the early Christians no longer
knew Hebrew (after 100 CE), they were not able to give more information.
v Justin Martyr (c. 155 CE): And all the Jews even now teach that the nameless God spoke to Moses
(...) we have the unbegotten and ineffable God as witness (First Apology I:61:1; II:12:4).
v Irenaeus of Lyons (170 CE): Thy name, O Saviour of truth! Such are words of the initiators; but
he who is initiated, replies: I am established, and I am redeemed; I redeem my soul from this age
(world), and from all things connected with it in the name of Iaô, who redeemed his own soul into
redemption in Christ who lives. Then the bystanders add these words: Peace be to all on whom this
name rests (Against Heresies I:21:3).
v Clement of Alexandria (c. 200 CE): Further, the mystic name of 4 letters which was affixed to
those alone to whom the adytum was accessible, is called Iaoue, which is interpreted, "Who is and shall
be." The name of God, too, among the Greeks contains 4 letters (The Stromata V:VI:34:5).
v Tertullian (c. 210 CE): so as to exclaim at her IAO! just as we hear the cry "Porro Quirites" ("Out
of the way, Romans!"), or else Fidem Caesaris!" ("By the faith of Caesar!"), whence (as they will have
it) the name IAO comes to be found is the Scriptures (Against the Valentinians XIV:3).
Paradoxically the main cause of the disappearance of God's name in the Christian
world was not the ignorance of Hebrew (indeed, a very few Christian scholars still knew it),
but the influence of Greek philosophy. For example, Justin (100-165), a Christian
philosopher, often commented in his works that it was impossible for man to name God
(Apologies I:10:1; I:61:11;
I:63:1; II:12:4), and his main
argument came from Timaios,
a work of Plato (Apologies
II:6:1). Some anomalies are
found in his quotes, like the
passage of Mika 4:1-7 in his
Dialogue with Tryphon (§109),
which enables us to conclude
that he knew the writing of
God's name. His quotes did
not correspond exactly with
the Septuagint or with the
Masoretic text but only with
the texts found at Qumran.
Mika 4:1 (picture line 1): YHWH ΤΩΝ ΔΥΝΑΜΕΩΝ instead of YHWH ΠΑΝΤΟΣΡΑΤΟΡΟΣ (LXX)
26

In spite of the Tetragram clearly appearing in paleo-Hebrew in this Greek text68,

Justin did not understand it as a proper name. Perhaps he thought that it was an archaic
procedure for writing the word “Lord”. At this time, even Irenaeus of Lyons (130-202)
believed that the word Iaô meant “Lord” in primitive Hebrew (Against Heresies II:24:2).
Because they did not understand Hebrew, as all Gentile Christians, Justin and Irenaeus of
Lyons believed that God's name was Jesus!:
v Justin Martyr (c. 150 CE): Moreover, in the book of Exodus we have also perceived that the name of
God Himself which, He says, was not revealed to Abraham or to Jacob, was Jesus, and was declared
mysteriously through Moses (Dialogue with Trypho LXXV).
v Christian gnostic (c. 150-170 CE): The Son is his name. He did not, therefore, keep it secretly
hidden, but the son came into existence. He himself gave a name to him. The name, then, is that of the
Father, just as the name of the Father is the Son (The Gospel of Truth).
v Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 170 CE): But what other name is there which is glorified among the Gentiles
than that of our Lord, by whom the Father is glorified, and man also? And because it is [the name] of
His own Son, who was made man by Him, He calls it His own. Just as a king, if he himself paints a
likeness of his son, is right in calling this likeness his own, for both these reasons, because it is [the
likeness] of his son, and because it is his own production; so also does the Father confess the name of
Jesus Christ, which is throughout all the world glorified in the Church, to be His own, both because it is
that of His Son, and because He who thus describes it gave Him for the salvation of men. Since,
therefore, the name of the Son belongs to the Father, and since in the omnipotent God the Church
makes offerings through Jesus Christ, He says well on both these grounds, And in every place incense is
offered to My name, and a pure sacrifice (Against Heresies IV:17:6).
These statements seem contradictory but the historical and linguistic context
explains these apparent inconsistencies. After the destruction of the Temple (70 CE) and
the official malediction69 of Christians of Jewish origin by the Jews (c. 90-100 CE),
profound changes occurred. First of all, Hebrew practically ceased to be spoken after the
2nd century70. Furthermore, with the internationalization of Christianity, the strange Jewish
custom of writing YHWH that one usually pronounces ‘Lord’ would be abandoned by
mostly the Gentile Christian copyists71 (between 70 et 135 CE) and they would simply to
write the word KS “L[or]d” in place of the strange Hebrew Tetragram. However, the
sequence ‘Kurios YHWH’ posed a problem of translation, which became: ‘Kurios Kurios/
Kurios Theos/ Kurios Adonay’ or just ‘Kurios’. This sequence also generated a lot of
variants72, which explain the inexplicable number of errors leading to confusion between
the terms ‘Lord’ and ‘God’ in the Gospel. The expression ‘Kurios YHWH’ is much rarer in
the Gospels than in the Septuagint, but as the title ‘the Lord’ is frequently applied to Jesus
that led to confusion with the other ‘Lord’, the translation of YHWH. So, some copyists, to
avoid this confusion, preferred to translate YHWH by ‘God’ (Theos) instead of ‘Lord’ or
simply to omit this name, as noted in some verses73 with a considerable number of
variants74. Why did translators stumbled over the reading or understanding of such simple
68 D. BARTHÉLEMY - Les devanciers d'Aquila
in: Vetus Testamentum, Supplements vol. X (Leiden 1963), pp. 203-212.
69 S.C. MIMOUNI - Le judéo-christianisme ancien, essais historiques

Paris 1998 (collection Patrimoines Éd. Cerf), pp. 161-188.

70 M. HADAS-LEBEL -Histoire de la langue hébraïque

Paris 1986, Ed. Publications Orientalistes de France, pp. 117-158.

71 P.E. KAHLE -The Cairo Geniza

Oxford 1959 Ed. B. Blackwell pp. 222-225.

C.H. ROBERTS -Manuscript, Society and Belief in Early Christian Egypt
Oxford 1979 Ed. University Press, pp. 28-31.
72 L. VAGANAY C.B. AMPHOUX -Initiation à la critique textuelle du Nouveau Testament.

Paris 1986, Ed. Cerf, pp. 138-147.

73 Lk 1:68; Ac 2:17; 6:7; 7:37; 10:33; 12:24; 13:5,44,48; 15:40; 19:20; 20:28; Rm 14:4; Col 3:13,16; 2 Tm 2:14; Jm 3:9; Jude 5; Rv 18:8.
74 B.M. METZGER -A Textual Commentary on the Greek new Testament

Stuttgart 1975 Ed. United Bible Societies.

 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 27

and well known words as ‘God’ and ‘Lord’ The best explanation is to admit that several
times ‘Lord (ΚΣ)’ or ‘God (ΘΣ)’ as nomina sacra took the place of YHWH75.
After the Bar Kokhba revolt (132-135 CE), several significant changes would occur
that would impact on the divine name: 1) around 130 CE the Talmud forbids the
pronouncing the name of God as it is written (Sanhedrin 101a; 10:1); 2) after 135 CE,
Hebrew is no longer spoken except by some rabbis; 3) Christian philosophers claim that
God's name is either “He who is” (etymology) according to the Septuagint (Ex 3:14) and
therefore has no proper name, or “Lord” (pronunciation) according to the New Testament:
For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. There is the same Lord [o autos kurios] over all, who is
rich toward all those calling on him. For: everyone who calls on the name of YHWH [kuriou] will be
saved (Rm 10:12-13). The quotation comes from the Old Testament: And everyone who calls on
the name of YHWH [Iaô] will be saved (Jl 2:32). One must know that Rabbi Tarphon, related
the problem (90-130 CE) of the destruction of Christian texts which contained the
Tetragram76 (Shabbat 116a). The reading of YHWH had to be puzzling, because a Christian
had to read: “the name of YHWH” as “the name of Lord”, obviously not “the name of the
Lord” because there is no article before “Lord”, as a result the word “Lord” was
understood as a name not as a title, on the other hand a Christian who knew Hebrew could
read YHWH as “Iaô” or “Adonai”, words which also meant “Lord” (according to the low
knowledge of that time). The main difference between Christians and Jews was actually the
meaning of the name “Lord” (not its pronunciation): Jesus for Christians but Jehovah for
Jews. All these factors explain why there is almost no evidence of God’s name in Greek. In
addition, the Hebrew language has been written without vowel points until around 500 CE.
Even if the majority of Jews no longer pronounced the name of God as it is
written, but secretly used the Yahû substitute (Iaô in Greek), some pious Jews continued to
use it at the risk of their lives, as mentions the Talmud (c. 135 CE): They then brought up R.
Hanina b. Teradion and asked him: Why hast thou occupied thyself with the Torah? He replied: Thus the
Lord my God commanded me. At once they sentenced him to be burnt, his wife to be slain, and his
daughter to be consigned to a brothel. The punishment of being burnt came upon him because he pronounced
the Name according to its letters. But how could he do so? Have we not learnt: The following have no
portion in the world to come: He who says that the Torah is not from Heaven, or that the resurrection of the
dead is not taught in the Torah. Abba Saul says (c. 130 CE): Also he who pronounces the Name
according to its letters? He did it in the course of practising, as we have learnt: Thou shalt not learn to do
after the abominations of those nations, but thou mayest learn [about them] in order to understand and to
teach. Why then was he punished? —Because he was pronouncing the Name in public (...) The
Executioner then jumped and threw himself into the fire. And a bathkol77 exclaimed: R. Hanina b.
Teradion and the Executioner have been assigned to the world to come (Abodah Zarah 17b-18a).
Despite their efforts not to reveal the true name of God to the Gentiles some
Jewish magicians have used it in their magical writings as well as some Christian scholars of
Syriac origin who have mentioned it in some of their biblical commentaries.
v Philo of Byblos, a Punic writer of grammatical and historical works, quoted by Eusebius
wrote (c. 100-120 CE): Of the affairs of the Jews the truest history, because the most in accordance
with their places and names, is that of Sanchuniathon of Beirut, who received the records from
Hierombal the priest of the god Ieüô (Ιευω); he dedicated his history to Abibaal king of Beirut, and
was approved by him and by the investigators of truth in his time. Now the times of these men fall even
before the date of the Trojan war, and approach nearly to the times of Moses, as is shown by the
75 G.D. KILPATRICK -The Principles and Practise of New Testament Textual Criticism
in: Bibliotheca ephemeridum theologicarum lovaniensium XCVI, pp. 207-222.
76 D. JAFFÉ - Les Sages du Talmud et l’Évangile selon Matthieu

in: Revue de l’histoire des religions Tome 226:4 (2009), p. 583-611.

77 A bathqol (“daughter of voice”) is a voice descending from heaven according to Daniel 4:21.
28

successions of the kings of Phoenicia (Phoenician History IV). The character Hierombal, priest
of Ieüô, was called “Hierobaal, Judge of the god YHWH”, in the Septuagint (Jg 7:1-2).
v In the Gospel of the Egyptians (c. 150 CE) the following sentence is written: O glorious name,
really truly, o existing aeon, Ieêouôa (ιιιιεεεεηηηηοοοουυυυωωωωαααα), his unrevealable name is
inscribed on the tablet (...) the Father of the light of everything, he who came forth from the silence (...)
he whose name is an invisible symbol. A hidden, invisible mystery came forth Ieouêaô (each vowel is
repeated 22 times)78.
v In the papyrus Gr CXXI lines 528-540 (c. 200 CE) of the British Museum Library:

εληιε Ιεωα ρουβα (“my God Ieôa greater”)

v Evagrius Ponticus wrote (c. 380 CE): The Tetragram, which is ineffable, was written in Hebrew:
Ioth, e, ouau, e, that is to say, πιπι the God79. He also explained that the name of the Lord
(Jesus) is: ioth, e, ouab, eth, with the Hebrew letter “s” (called shin) in the middle. Maybe he meant
that the name Jesus was pronounced Iesûa in Hebrew80, involving Ieûa for God’s name,
because the name Jesus is written Iesoua (Dt 1:38) in the Septuagint of Aquila.
v Severi of Antioch (465-538), used the form Iôa (c. 500 CE) in a series of comments on
chapter 8 of John’s gospel (Jn 8:58), pointing out that it was God's name in Hebrew81.

v The Book of Nestor the idolatrous priest (Sefer Nestor

Hakomer)82 is a dispute between a Nestorian
and Monophysiste which is commented by a
Jewish scribe in the 7th century83. This book
teaches us two things: some Christian scholars
had contact with Jews who (at that time) were
using the Hebrew substitute Hashem (HŠM)
which means "The Name", abbreviated in H'
(framed) in place of the Tetragram. Note also
that Jesus (underlined name) is written
78 J.M. ROBINSON - The Nag Hammadi Library
Leiden 1988 Ed. E.J. Brill pp.210,217.
79 P. DE LAGARDE - Onomastica Sacra

Hildesheim 1966 Ed. Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung pp. 205,206,230.

80 Ad tomum III operum S. Hieronymi appendix

in: Patrologiæ Latina XXIII (J.P. Migne, 1845), pp. 1275-1280.

81 Baltasar Cordeiro - Catena patrum graecorum in Sanctum Ioannem

Paris 1630 (officina Plantiniana) p. 244.

Roma Biblioteca Vallicelliana ms. E40 (10th CE) fol. 153v line 33.
82 J.D. EISENSTEIN - Ozar Wikuhim

Israel 1969 pp. 310-315.

83 D.J. LASKER, S. STROUMSA -The Polemic of Nestor the Priest

in: The Jewish Quarterly Review Vol. 91:3/4 (2001, University of Pennsylvania Press), pp. 471-474.
 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 29

phonetically in Hebrew Yeshû (YŠW) in this passage from Matthew 4:1-10 instead of
the classic Yeshûa‘ (YŠW‘). In its onomasticon sacrum, the Codex Coislinianus 1 (dated 7th
century CE) explains (figures below fol. 4r et 3v) the God’s name Ïôa means “invisible”
(αορατος) and Ïéoua “Life of G[o]d” (ζωη θυ):

These few testimonies show a very important point: after 100 CE even if the name
of God was no longer known in the Christian world and was yet pronounced secretly Yahû
in the Jewish world, it was still known by a small group under the form I(e)ôa (Yehowah).
Those who claim that the pronunciation of God’s name is lost, not only contradict
historical facts but the Bible itself, which says that this name will last forever: Jehovah the God
of your forefathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This
is my name forever, and this is how I am to be remembered from generation to generation (Ex 3:15). O
Jehovah, your name endures forever. O Jehovah, your fame endures for all generations (Ps 135:13). Then
Jesus said to him: Go away, Satan! For it is written: It is Jehovah your God you must worship, and it is to
him alone you must render sacred service (Mt 4:10). As he (Jesus) says: I will declare your name to my
brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you with song (Heb 2:12). Symeon has related
thoroughly how God for the first time turned his attention to the nations to take out of them a people for his
name (Ac 15:14), as well as logic, because if God is truly all-powerful how does one explain
that he failed to preserve his great name which had to be known of all the earth: So, then, it
depends, not on a person’s desire or on his effort, but on God, who has mercy. For the scripture says to
Pharaoh: For this very reason I have let you remain: to show my power in connection with you and to have
my name declared in all the earth (Rm 9:16-17). Although the period from 100 CE (death of
John the last Apostle) to 1200 CE (preaching of the Bible initiated by Peter Waldo and
accurate explanations about God's name written by Moses Maimonides in his famous
book: The Guide for the Perplexed, mainly the chapter 64 of Book I) was a “dark age” for the
divine name (parable of the weeds)84, some testimonials allow us nevertheless to
understand how this name has been preserved during this long period of time. First of all,
few rare Christians knew yet that God's name had been written in Hebrew in the Bible.
If the Jews ceased to use ancient Hebrew for writing God's name, some Samaritans
continued to use it as one can see in the Samaritan inscription85 (below left) found at
Syracuse (dated 2nd century CE): Do arise, YHWH, and let your enemies be scattered (Nb 10:35),
or in this inscription86 (below right) dated 3rd century CE.

[QW]MH YHWH WYPṢW ’YBYK

84 The sower of the fine seed is the Son of man (Jesus); the field is the world; as for the fine seed (the truth), these are the sons of the kingdom; but the weeds

(zizanie) are the sons of the wicked one, and the enemy that sowed them is the Devil. The harvest is a conclusion of a system of things, and the reapers are angels.
Therefore, just as the weeds are collected and burned with fire, so it will be in the conclusion of the system of things. The Son of man will send forth his angels, and
they will collect out from his kingdom all things that cause stumbling and persons who are doing lawlessness (...) At that time the righteous ones will shine as
brightly as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let him that has ears listen (Mt 13:36-43). In a way a kind of hibernation.
85 V. MORABITO - Les Samaritains de Sicile

in: Études sémitiques et samaritaines (1998 Éd. Zèbre), pp. 195-197.

86 J. NAVEH - Early History of the Alphabet

Leiden 1982 Ed. E.J. Brill p. 124.

30

Contrary to Christians, Jewish copyists carried on the use of writing the Name in
paleo-Hebrew until c. 300 CE. The Tetragrams is
written in paleo-Hebrew in a copy of the Septuagint
of Symmachus87 (dated c. 300 CE, Psalm 69:30-31),
an Ebionite (Judeo-Christian) who had revised the
Septuagint around 165 CE.
Origen noticed (c. 250 CE), in his comment on
Psalms88, the Jewish custom of writing the Tetragram in
old Hebrew embedded in the Greek text as one can see in
this copy (right) of Aquila's translation89 dated 5th century
CE. After 300 CE, Eusebius and Jerome pointed out that
the Jews used again modern Hebrew to write the Name,
and regrettably these Hebrew letters (‫ )יהוה‬were confused
with Greek characters of similar shape (πιπι), as one can
observe in many hexaplar (six columns) copies90.
Accordingly, Pseudo-Denys, a Christian theologian and
philosopher, probably Syrian, demonstrated (c. 530 CE) in
his book The Divine Names that: it is impossible for man to name
God, despite the name Iaô is still mentioned in some copies
of the Septuagint (in reference to theophoric names) and in
some Apocryphal Christian writings. In commenting on a
work of Severi of Antioch, the famous scholar James of
Edessa made clear in a technical comment (c. 675 CE),
that the copyists of the Septuagint (of his time) were divided over whether to write the
divine name Adonay, to keep it within the Greek text in the form Π Ι Π Ι (corresponding in
fact to the Hebrew name YHYH as he mentioned), or to translate it as Kurios and write it
in the margin of the manuscript91. One can see the use of modern Hebrew in the
Ambrosiano O39 manuscript92 (below) dated c. 900 CE.

As one can imagine, these rapid changes would also have an impact on the LXX of
Jewish origin in which God's name in Hebrew occurred. The Christian copyists, in copying
out these manuscripts, would first transform these names ‫ יהוה‬became πιπι, then replace
them by the Greek abbreviation KC. There was also a case where the copyist actually read
the word πιπι in Greek, or Pypy. For example, Bishop Paul of Tella, in his Syriac translation
of the Septuagint (c. 616 CE), used this strange name Pypy to refer to God93.
87 C. WESSELY - Studien zur Palaeographie und Papyruskunde vol.XI
Leipzig 1911 p. 171.
88 ORIGÈNE - Selecta in Psalmos 2.2

in: Patrologiæ Greca XII (Brepols), pp.1103-1104.

89 F. CRAWFORD BURKITT - Fragments of the Books of Kings According to the Translation of Aquila

1898 Cambridge pp. 3-8.

90 ORIGÈNE -Origenis Hexaplorum tomus II (Psalm 26:1; 27:4,7; 28:1;Jes. I,2)

1964 Ed. Georg olms verlagsbuchhandlung Hildesheim pp. 124,-127,431.

91 E. Nestle - Jacob von Edessa über den Schem hammephorasch und andere Gottesnamen. in: Zeitschrift der Deutschen

morganländischen Gesellschaft XXXII (Leipzig 1878), pp. 465-508,735.

92 G. MERCATI -Codex Rescriptus Bybliothecae Ambrosiane O39

Psalterii Hexapli Reliquiae.Pars prima (Rome 1958), pp. 11,97,101.

93 B.M. METZGER - Manuscripts of the Greek Bible

New York 1991, Ed. Oxford University Press, p. 35, 94-95,108-109.

 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 31

As seen in this codex94 of the 6th century, the word (ΚΣ) (Kurios) took the place of
the divine name. However, each time, the copyist indicated the presence of the Tetragram
(written Π Ι Π Ι) in the margin, furthermore, as a marginal note in Ezekiel 1:2 and 11:1 the
name Iaô (Ιαω) appeared. Several hexaplar manuscripts were written in this way95. The
procedure of the nomina sacra (ΚΣ instead of KYRIOΣ) was systematically used in all
Christian manuscripts after 135 CE. Isidore of Sevilla for example (560-636), knew God's
ten names (El, Eloim, Eloe, Sabaoth, Elion, Eie, Adonai, Ia, Tetragram, Saddai) owing to
Jerome's letter number 25, but he thought that the unspeakable Tetragram resulted from
the double name IaIa. The erudite Photius explained around 870 CE, in his letter N°162 to
Amphiloc, that the Tetragram was written with four evanescent letters called in Hebrew
iôth, alph, ouauth, eth, and that this name was pronounced Aïa by the Jews but Iabe (Ιαβε) by
the Samaritans. These quotations are exceptional, because the greater majority tended
towards the ineffability of God's name. Albinus Flaccus Alcuini (735-804), a famous
translator of the Bible into Latin, specified that although God's name was written Jod, He,
Vau, Heth, it was read Domini (“Lord” in Latin), because this name was ineffable.
As seen, Christian biblical scholars had very little knowledge of the Hebrew Bible,
even among the most prominent. In order to better understand the Hebrew language,
Christian scholars began an exchange with Hebrew scholars although not without
disagreement96. Additionally, a small number of Jews had converted to Catholicism and
they greatly improved the knowledge of Hebrew and above all of divine Names. For
example, Petrus Alfunsus (1062-1110?), called Moses Sephardi before his baptism (1106),
was probably the first one to connect the ‘ineffable’ trinity with the ‘ineffable’ Tetragram.
Thus, he clarified the meaning of several names like: Eloha (god), Elohai (my gods/ my
God), Elohi (my god), Elohim (gods/ God), Adon (lord), Adoni (my lord), Adonai (my
lords/ my Lord), but he said that the Tetragram was secret, written
with only three letters (‫י‬, ‫ה‬, ‫ )ו‬and four figures (‫יהוה‬, ‫יה‬, ‫הו‬, ‫ )וה‬or
three geometrical figures in one97. Petrus Blesensis (1135-1204), a
Christian writer, completed these remarks. He said, in his short
treatise against the Jews98, and to prove the trinity, that the name
of God was made up of four figures: ‘Io, he, vaf, he’ God's name,
‘Io, he’, another name of God (Iah) and two altered names of
God: ‘he, vaf’ (Hu) and ‘vaf, he’ (??). The Name thus began to
reappear in the Christian world. Y H W H
94 I. COZZA -LUZI -Prophetarum codex Graecus Vaticanus 2125
Rome 1890, Biblioteca Vaticana pp. 205,509,588.
95 Codices: Q, 86, 88, 234mg, 264.
96 G. DAHAN - Les intellectuels chrétiens et les Juifs au Moyen Age

in: Patrimoines Judaïsme (Paris 1990 Ed. Cerf).

97 PETRUS ALFUNSUS - Dialogi Petri Alphonsi ex judæo christiani

in: Patrologiæ Latina CLVII (J.P. Migne 1854), pp. 607-612.

98 PETRI BLESENSIS - Contra perfidiam Judæorum

in: Patrologiæ Latina CCVII (J.P. Migne 1855), p. 833.

32

Regarding the pronunciation of God's name the Talmud clearly states that before
the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE the high priest and the priests of Jerusalem
pronounced the Tetragram (YHWH). The name YHWH was considered as the Name
proper and was known in the earliest rabbinical works simply as “the Name” (ha-Shem); also
as Shem ha-Meyuḥad “the Extraordinary Name” (Sifre, Num. 143); as Shem ha-Meforash “the
Distinguished Name” (Yoma VI:2); as Shem ben Arba’ Otiyyot “the Tetragrammaton” or “the
Quadriliteral Name” (Qid. 71a) and as: Yod He Waw He. The pronunciation of the written
Name was used by the priests in the Temple when blessing the people (Nb 6:22-27);
outside the Temple they used the title “Adonai” (Sotah VII:6; 38a). The high priest
mentioned the Name on Yom Kippur 10 times (Tosef. Yoma, II; 39b). R. Johanan said the
sages delivered to their disciples the key to the Name once in every Sabbatical year. The
Jewish sages quoted: This is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations (Ex 3:15),
but because of the growing number of heretics (the Jewish Christians), Rabbi Abba Saul
prohibited, around 130 CE, to pronounce the Distinguished Name. To support this change
the Talmud explains that the word le-‘olam “forever” is written defectively, being without
the waw for the vowel ô, which permits the reading le-‘allem “to conceal”.
Did the rabbis succeed concealing God's name fully? Given that several apostles
knew personally the high priest, like John and Paul, and on the other hand a great crowd of
priests became Christians (Ac 6:7), they had to know God's name, including its
pronunciation. When the ban on the name has been formulated by the rabbis around 130
CE, the Christians of Jewish origin, called “Nazarenes” (Ac 24:5) or “Nozrim” in Hebrew,
have not been concerned, similarly the Sadducees (whom many of them were priests) who
were not obeying the Talmud. However, these two Jewish groups quickly disappeared after
the Bar Khokhba revolt (135 CE). The Jewish Christians were quickly seen as heretics
because of their Judaizing practices (Ac 15:1) and the Sadducees who worked at the temple
had to resume secular activities. In the 6th century CE, the main remnant of Jewish
Christians became Ebionites and most Sadducees who did not recognize the oral law
(Talmud), but only the Law (Torah), became Karaite Jews “Readers [of the Law only]”. All
of these Jews, however, have one thing in common: a great reverence for the divine name
as evidenced this copy99 of the book of Psalms (c. 30-50 CE) in which all Tetragrams
(framed) were written in ancient Hebrew.

When Hebrew was still spoken (before 200 CE), how did Judeo-Christians
(Christians of Jewish origin), former Sadducees, dissident Rabbis or Jewish Gnostics read
these Tetragrams? Unfortunately we only know them through their adversaries, well, after
150 CE, Gentile Christians were writing God's name in Greek KS, pronounced Kurios
(“Lord”), and the Rabbis (most of them were former Pharisees) were writing God's name
99Les manuscrits de la Mer morte
in: Les dossiers d'archéologie n°189 (janvier 1994), p. 46.
 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 33

in Hebrew H' in their daily life, an abbreviation of Hashem (“The Name”, written Shema in
Aramaic), but YHWH in the Torah, pronounced Adonay (“My Lord”) in the synagogues
of Palestine. In addition, not only is the little evidence we have is biased100 but is also late
and therefore has presumably been revised by scribes. Regarding:
v Judeo-Christians. The Babylonian Talmud repeats the account about Rabbi Eliezer ben
Hyrcanus (Hullin 2:24) and adds additional material. It tells that (c. 110-120 CE) Jacob
of Kfar Sechania, a Nazarene, quoted Deuteronomy 23:18: You shall not bring the fee of a
whore or the price of a dog into the house of the Lord your God in fulfilment of any vow. Jacob says
that he was taught this by Yeshu (Jesus), then asked Eliezer whether it was permissible
to use a whore’s money to build a toilet for the high priest. When Rabbi Eliezer did not
reply, Jacob quoted Micah 1:7: For they were amassed from whores’ fees and they shall become
whores’ fees again. This was the teaching that had pleased Rabbi Eliezer who was accused
of heresy (Abodah Zarah 16b-17a). Aristo of Pella tried (in vain) to answer some Jewish
objections in his book “A Disputation of Jason and Papiscus” (c. 135 CE). For example,
to the objection that the divinity of Jesus contradicts the unity of God and is a
blasphemy, he replied that Christians believe likewise in only one God. The Old
Testament itself makes a distinction with the appearance of the three men at Mamre
(Gn 18:22,33) one of whom was confessedly God, yet distinct from the Creator101.
Symmachus the Ebionite (some Ebionites were also called Symmachians), according to
Eusebius and Jerome he translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek (c. 165 CE) in which
he systematically wrote God’s name in ancient Hebrew (YHWH).
v Former Sadducees and dissident Rabbis. Almost nothing is known of the Sadducees and
dissident Rabbis in the Talmud, except Rabbi Hanina ben Teradion (c. 132-135 CE):
Why hast thou (Hanina) occupied thyself with the Torah? He replied: Thus the Lord my God
commanded me. At once they sentenced him to be burnt, his wife to be slain, and his daughter to be
consigned to a brothel. The punishment of being burnt came upon him because he pronounced the Name
in its full spelling (Abodah Zarah 17b-18a), that is Î-eh-û-â (Y-H-W-H).
v Jewish Gnostics. The name Iaô (YHW) played a great role in Jewish esoterism (c. 80
CE): Go, Jaoel, and by means of my ineffable Name raise me yonder man (...) I am called Jaoel by
Him who moves that which exists with me on the 7th expanse upon the firmament, a power in virtue of
the ineffable Name that is dwelling in me (The Apocalypse of Abraham X:3-7). According to
Jewish mysticism (c. 150 CE): Choose three (letters) and place them in His great Name: YHW.
With them seal the six extremities. Face upward and seal it with YHW (Sefer Yetzirah I:15). The
name Ieôa (YHWH) is sometimes mentioned102 in the Gospel of the Egyptians (c. 150 CE):
O glorious name, really truly, o existing aeon, Ieêouôa, his unrevealable name is inscribed on the tablet
(...) he whose name is an invisible symbol. A hidden, invisible mystery came forth Ieouêaô.
v Philo of Byblos, a Greek historian knowing Hebrew: (c. 100-120 CE): Sanchuniathon of
Beirut, who received the records from Hierombal the priest of the god Ieüô; he dedicated his history to
Abibaal king of Beirut, and was approved by him and by the investigators of truth in his time. Now
the times of these men fall even before the date of the Trojan war, and approach nearly to the times of
Moses, as is shown by the successions of the kings of Phoenicia (Phoenician History IV).
These testimonies are concordant103, they show that all those Jews recognized that
the Tetragram was God's name, but rabbinical Jews were reading the name Hashem “The-
Name” and pronounced it: Adonay “My Lord” in their prayers (because after 70 CE there
was no Temple), however non-rabbinic Jews were reading the name Yahû “Yah-himself”
100 S.C. MIMOUNI -Les établissements nazoréens, ébionites et elkasaïtes d’après les hérésiologues de la Grande Église
in: Annali di Storia dell'Esegesi 31:2 (2014) pp. 25-39.
101 P. SCHAFF - Literary Contest of Christianity with Judaism and Heathenism

in: History of the Church Vol II Chap III, 1997 Oak Harbor WA Logos Research Systems.
102 B. ALFRINK – La prononciation 'Jehova' du tétragramme

in: Oudtestamentische Studien, Volume 5 (1948) pp. 43-62.

103 They show that God's name has been pronounced, mainly by priests, either Yahû (rarely) or Yehowah inside the Temple.
34

and pronounced it Yehowâ (Ieôa in Greek) in their prayers and was probably changed in the
Gnostic writings because of symbolism reasons. Eusebius explains (c. 315 CE), that: And
any one going over the remaining letters of the alphabet, would find that they have been named among the
Hebrews each with some cause and reason. For they say also that the combination of the 7 vowels contains
the enunciation of one forbidden name, which the Hebrews indicate by 4 letters (YHWH) and apply to the
supreme power of God, having received the tradition from father to son that this is something unutterable
and forbidden to the multitude. And one of the wise Greeks having learned this, I know not whence, hinted
it obscurely in verse, saying as follows: 7 vowels (Ieêouôa) tell My Name —the Mighty God, the everlasting
Father of mankind (Preparation for the Gospel XI:6,36-37). The transcription Ieüô, instead
of Ieôa, given by Philo of Byblos could be due to normal phonological change: û (ou) >> ô
(oo) >> o, like the name Nabû in Numbers 32:3 (written Nabû at Ebla) became Nabau in
the Septuagint, then Nebô in the Masoretic text.
The testimony from Philo of Byblos is rejected by some scholars, including the
vocalization of the god Ieüô, because it contains a chronological mistake regarding the
famous Assyrian queen: Semiramis (Sammu-ramât) who reigned (811-807 BCE) about four
centuries after the Trojan war (1185 BCE), not “nearly to the times of Moses (c. 1468 BCE
according to Demetrius, a Greek chronograph who lived in the 3rd century BCE)”. This
error does it mean to dismiss the rest of the testimony of Philo, quoted by Eusebius: Now
the historian of this subject is Sanchuniathon, an author of great antiquity, and older, as they say, than the
Trojan times, one whom they testify to have been approved for the accuracy and truth of his Phoenician
History. Philo of Byblos, not the Hebrew, translated his whole work from the Phoenician language into the
Greek, and published it. The author in our own day of the compilation against us mentions these things in
the 4th book of his treatise Against the Christians, where he bears the following testimony to
Sanchuniathon, word for word [from Porphyry]: Of the affairs of the Jews the truest history, because the
most in accordance with their places and names, is that of Sanchuniathon of Beirut, who received the records
from Hierombal the priest of the god Ieüô (Ιευω); he dedicated his history to Abibaal king of Beirut, and
was approved by him and by the investigators of truth in his time. Now the times of these men fall even
before the date of the Trojan war, and approach nearly to the times of Moses, as is shown by the successions
of the kings of Phoenicia. And Sanchuniathon, who made a complete collection of ancient history from the
records in the various cities and from the registers in the temples, and wrote in the Phoenician language with
a love of truth, lived in the reign of Semiramis, the queen of the Assyrians, who is recorded to have lived
before the Trojan war or in those very times. And the works of Sanchuniathon were translated into the
Greek tongue by Philo of Byblos. So wrote the author before mentioned, bearing witness at once to the
truthfulness and antiquity of the so-called theologian (Preparation for the Gospel I:9:21). The book
of Sanchuniathon (Phoenician History), which was written in Phoenician, was translated into
Greek by Philo of Byblos (70-160?) likely around 100-120. Philo was a Greek polygraph,
scholar and grammarian original Phoenician, who lived in Byblos. It is noteworthy that
archaeological discoveries at Ugarit have amply confirmed his Phoenician cosmogony104. In
addition, Porphyry (234-305), who was a Greek philosopher, opponent of the authenticity
of the Bible, had quoted Sanchuniathon as being a trustworthy historian. Indeed, several
details in his report prove he was extremely accurate and reliable. First, Sanchuniathon is a
genuine Phoenician name which means "[the god] Sanchun gave". Second, he claimed to
have received his information from Hierombal the priest of the god Ieüô; he dedicated his history to
Abibaal king of Beirut, and was approved by him and by the investigators of truth in his time. Now the
times of these men fall even before the date of the Trojan war, and approach nearly to the times of Moses.
Given that Philo of Byblos was not Jewish he could not make any connection with the
Ierobaal in the Septuagint, a judge of Israel who worshipped YHWH (Jg 7:1-2). Moreover,
R. GOULET -Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques V
104

Paris 2012, Ed. C.N.R.S. Editions, pp. 392-399.

 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 35

the famous historian Josephus (37-100) never mentions this character in his books, but
only Gedeon (the new name of Jerubbaal). Hierombal the priest of the god Ieüô was actually:
Ierubaal the judge of the god YHWH. The error in writing, m instead of w, is due to their
similar pronunciation in the past105. Two details of the story are authentic because Philo
could not know that at the time ruled Jerubbaal (1299-1259 BCE) the nation of Israel was
the only nation to have no king but a Judge (a kind of priest), second, El-Amarna letters
showed that there were powerful kings of Beirut at that time106 (who were vassals of
Egypt), like Yapah-Hadda (c. 1370-1345) or Ammunira (c. 1345-1320). Consequently, the
god Ieüô was the god of Gedeon, written YHWH in Phoenician/ Hebrew.
The Phoenician vocalization Yehuwoh (Ieüô) of the Tetragram (YHWH) is quite
similar to the Hebrew vocalization Yehowah (Ieôa) suggested by Josephus. It’s noteworthy
that the Phoenician language107 spoken by the kings of Tyre and Byblos had to be similar to
Hebrew at the time of Solomon (1K 5:1-18). Some scholars argue that the vocalization of
Phoenician is not better known than the vocalization of Hebrew in Sanchuniathon's time.
This objection (of bad faith in my opinion)108 is not absolutely true because we know
Phoenician was close to Hebrew109 and above all we have an Egyptian testimony of the
vocalization of God’s name at the time of Amenhotep III (1383-1345).
According to the Bible, the Pharaoh who opposed Moses knew God’s name and
was able to pronounce it: After this, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him: This is
what YHWH, God of Israel, says “Let my people go, so that they can hold a feast in my honour in the
desert”. Who is YHWH, Pharaoh replied, for me to obey what he says and let Israel go? I know nothing
of YHWH, and I will not let Israel go (Ex 5:1-2). According to the Bible of Abbot Crampon
(official Bible of Catholicism in 1904), Pharaoh would have said: Who is Jehovah (...) I know
nothing of Jehovah, however, according to the revision of 1923, he would have rather said:
Who is Yahweh (...) I know nothing of Yahweh. According to Jerusalem Bible (official Bible of
Catholicism since 1955) he would have finally said Yahve! There is something lost in
translation, but the Pharaoh did not
have to consult some skilled Hebraists
for knowing how to pronounce
YHWH (fortunately for him) because
he spoke only Egyptian like the
Pharaoh Amenhotep III who had
engraved the Tetragram in a shield110
on a pylon of a temple. The inscription
(right), which contains the Tetragram,
is easy to decipher111. Indeed, just take
an elementary grammar of Egyptian112
to transcribe this sentence into
105 Amel-Markuk for Awel-Marduk (2Ki 25:27), Abiyam for Abiyaw (1Ki 14:31), Dariamush or Dariawush (Zk 1:1), etc.
106 During the period c. 1370-1345 BCE, the king of Tyre was Abi- Milku, the king of Pella: Mut-Baali, the king of Ushtanu (Lebanon)
was Sisera (Sisaruwa). In fact Sanchuniathon lived during the reign of Shalmaneser I (1271-1242), the king of Assyria, not Semiramis.
107 After the attack on Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar, Phoenician became Punic and after the destruction of Carthage in 146 BCE, Punic

became neo-Punic which will be talked about at least until 500 CE, because Augustine of Hippo (354-430) wrote his books in neo-Punic.
108 For example, the name of Jesus is never challenged whereas we know that in Hebrew it is pronounced Yeshûa‘. In addition the

ancient Phoenician god called Kûthar (14th century BCE) was vocalized Kousôr (Κουσωρ) by Philon of Byblos.
109 R.D. WOODARD – The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World’s Ancient Languages

Cambridhe 2004, Ed. The Cambridge University Press, pp. 370-371.

110 J. LECLANT - Les fouilles de Soleb

in: Annuaire du Collège de France 1980-1981 pp. 474-475.

111 J. LECLANT - Le "Tétragramme" à l'époque d'Aménophis III

in: Near Eastern Studies. Wiesbaden (1991 Ed. Otto Harrassowitz) pp.215-219.
M.C. ASTOUR - Yahweh in Egyptian Topographic Lists
Bamberg 1979 in: Festschrift Elmar Edel pp.17-32.
112 Even Wikipedia gives accurate information in that matter (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_language ).
36

hieroglyphs by: t3 š3-sw-w y-h-w3-w, which is vocalized in the conventional system (3 = a, w

= û, ÿ = i) as: ta shasû-w yehûa-w (the final w is a plural) and which can be translated as: land
(ta) of the Bedouin-s (shasû-w) of Yehoua- those (yehûa-w), because û is pronounced ou.
The conventional system of vocalization is well known to all Egyptian makers of
engraved pendants in hieroglyphics, generally with the name of the owner. Then simply ask
one of these small manufacturers how he reads the inscription of the shield, usually the
issue immediately following the reading is: but who is this Yehoua? This demonstrates the lack
of difficulty to read this Tetragram in hieroglyphics. However Egyptologists argue that this
reading is speculative because we do not know the vowels of Egyptian words. This
observation is quite accurate but does not include proper names because foreign proper
names make no sense in Egyptian, they should be written in phonetic through an alphabet
provided for this purpose. For example, Queen Hittite Puduhepa (1297-1215 BCE) was
cited on numerous documents in different scripts113:

pu- du- ḫi/ḫe- pa pu- du- i- pa (Syllabic cuneiforms)

pu- du- ḫe/ḫi- pa (Hittite hieroglyphs)

p- w- d- w- ḫ-ÿ- p3 (Egyptian hieroglyphs) w3-w3.t

p- û- d- û- ḫ-î pâ (= Puduhipa) Wâ-wâ.t land (Lower Nubia)
Even if one ignores these ancient writings, careful observation of all these
inscriptions enables to verify that the name of the queen in Egyptian hieroglyphs is written
with an alphabet using vowels: w = û, ÿ = î and 3 = â. So according to these equivalences,
which confirm the conventional reading, the Egyptian Tetragram Y-h-w3 should be read
Yehua (Yehoua). If this Tetragram was pronounced Yahweh, Egyptians would have spelled
it phonetically Y-3-h-w-h (Yâhûeh) and not Y-h-w3 (Yehûâ)114.
Not only conventional pronunciation “Yehua” is replaced by Yahweh to be in
agreement with the Hebrew scholars who are themselves dependent on theologians, but
this name corresponding to the Hebrew God is likened to a place name where would have
lived a small group of Bedouin (Shasu). This is ludicrous for at least two reasons: first, the
name Yehûâ is in a group of four names whose the three others are well-known Semitic
gods, secondly, Shasu’s name refers to both the country and the people of Palestine. For
example, a list of toponyms enumerates: Pella-foreign land (p-ḥ-r ḫ3st), Shasu-foreign land
(š3-sw-w ḫ3st), Qatna (qd-d-ÿ-n-3), Gezer (q-3-d-3-r). Egyptian texts and their topographical
lists confirm the existence of a vast area inhabited by the Shasu115 or Israelites116.
In the temple of Amun (at Soleb) a column, to the
north of an Eastern portal (thus pointing towards Canaan),
contains a short list of four names117 (opposite figure). This
abnormally short list is composed of at least three unknown
names out of four (from left to right):
113 G. GERTOUX – The Name of God Y.eH.oW.aH Which is Pronounced as it is Written I_Eh_oU_Ah
New York 2002 Ed. University Press of America pp. 251-264.
114 For example Yaḥmai (1Ch 7:2) is written: Y-3-ḥ3-3-m3-3 (Ya-ḥa-ma). Sweneh (Ezk 30:6) or Suene (LXX) is written s-w-nw.
115 A. NEGEV, S. GIBSON – Dictionnaire archéologique de la Bible

Paris 2006 Ed. The Jerusalem Publishing House Ltd. pp. 30-31, 242-245, 282-285.
116 A. RAINEY – Shasu or Habiru : Who Were the Early Israelites ?

in: Biblical Archaeological Society n°34 (2008) pp. 51-55.

117 M. SCHIFF GIORGINI – Soleb V Le temple bas-reliefs et inscriptions

1998 Ed. Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale pl. 221.

 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 37

The translation of that list according to the conventional reading is as follows, if the
names are those of gods (1) or of place names118 (2):
Transcription Translation (1) Translation (2)
t3 š3-sw-w s3 m-’-ti-i Land of Shasu after Maat Land of Shasu: Samata
t3 š3-sw-w y-h-w3 w Land of Shasu those of Yehua Land of Shasu: Yahwe
t3 š3-sw t-w-r-ÿ b-l Land of Shasu showing respect to Bel Land of Shasu: Turbil/r
b3-i-ti h ‘-[n-t] Bait [house of] A[nat] Beth A[nat]
The translation (2), which supposes place names, is illogical119 for two reasons: Anat
(Hebrew and Phoenician ‫ענת‬, ‘Anāt; Ugaritic ‘nt) was a major northwest Semitic goddess,
not a place name, and the three other “place names”: Samata, Yahwe and Turbil/r are
absolutely unknown in the El-Amarna letters. There are two explanations: either Egyptian
scribes or Egyptologists erred (in my opinion it is ***). In contrast, Maat (meaning “truth/
harmony” in Egyptian) was a major goddess of Byblos, Yehowah was the Israelite God, Bel
was the Babylonian Baal (meaning “Lord” in Canaan) and Anat was a major Syrian god. So,
the Egyptians distinguished among different kinds of Canaanite nomads by the chief god
they worshiped. In Ramses II’s lists, the Shasu “Bedouin” in Canaan are distinguished from
one another. For example, at the Battle of Kadesh, a text reads (pap. Anastasi): Came two
Shasu from the tribes of Shasu (...) He takes what is left and joined the (ranks of) wretched. He mingles
with the tribes of Shasu land and disguises himself as those Asiatics (aamu) (I, 23,7-8). We ended
allowing to tribes of Shasu from Seir (Edom) to pass the fortress (VI, 54-56).
It is noteworthy that from Ahmose (c. 1530 CE) there is a complete disappearance
(into nowhere!) of any reference to the Hyksos and Palestine (“Lower Retenu”) became
suddenly the “land of Kharru120 (Hurrians)” for Egyptians. Shortly after, from Thutmose I
(c. 1490 BCE) and up to Ramses III (c. 1160 BCE), appear (from nowhere!) in Palestine an
important new Asiatic people, called Shasu121, who are extensively described in the
Egyptian iconographic documents122. “Shasu land” in the Egyptian inscriptions was not a
small area of unknown nomads because in the following list of six place names on a chariot
of Thutmose IV (1392-1383), “Shasu land” was considered potentially as a powerful enemy
by the Egyptians like Naharin land (Western Mesopotamia) or Shinar:

1) N-h-r-ÿ-n 2) S3-n-g-r 3) T-w-n-p 4) Š3-sw 5) Q-d-š 6) Ti-ḫ3-ÿ-s3

Naharin land Shinar's Tunip country Shasu land Qadesh land Takhsi country.

In the tomb of Anen (TT120), brother-in-law of the king Amenhotep III (1383-
1345), “Shasu” is pictured as one of the nine traditional enemies of Egypt (from right to
118 ALLEN, SPENCER L., "The Splintered Divine: A Study of Ištar, Baal, and Yahweh Divine Names and Divine Multiplicity in the

Ancient Near East" (2011). Publicly accessible Penn Dissertations (Paper 309), pp. 350-354.
119 C. ALING, C. BILLINGTON -The Name Yahweh in Egyptian Hieroglyphic Text, in Autumn 2009 issue of Artifax.
120 J-.C. GOYON – De l'Afrique à l'Orient

Paris 2005 Ed. E.J. ellipses pp. 57-61.

121 Shasu refer to Bedouin (“wandering” in Egyptian), called Habiru (“emigrants” in Akkadian) by Canaanites. This identification is

confirmed by the Egyptian priest Manetho himself. He explains the word as Hyksos from hyk-sos "King Shepherd", which is relatively
accurate, because the Egyptian word ḥeq means "ruler/chief" and the word šos actually means “shepherd”. Sahidic translation (late
Egyptian) of Genesis 47:6: if you know any able men among them, then make them rulers over my cattle, used for example the word šos to describe
these “rulers of cattle”. The Hyksos word actually comes from the Egyptian ḥeqaw ḫa’sw.t “Rulers of foreign lands”, but Manetho
connected it to the Shasu appeared later and thus translated it as “Rulers of shepherds” ḥeqaw šosw (in Egyptian š3s means “travelling”).
Studies on Shasu tend to rehabilitate this so-called popular etymology (M.G. HASEL - Domination and Resistance. Egyptian Military Activity in
the Southern Levant, Leiden 1998, Ed. Brill, pp. 217-239). In fact, the Egyptians understood the word shasu as a common noun designating
semi-sedentary shepherds staying mainly in the south of Palestine. They used the phrase “Lands of Shasu”, which shows that they
originally included this phrase as a geographical designation. The fact that they wrote the word sometimes shas (š3s) “wandering” instead
of the usual shasu (š3sw) also shows that they originally included the word as a synonym for “transhumant”.
122 R. GIVEON - Les bédouins Shosou des documents égyptiens

Leiden 1971 Ed. E.J. Brill pp. 248-250.

38

left: 1) S-n-g-3-r Shinar land; 2) Kš Kush land (Nubia); 3) N-h-r-ÿ-n Naharin people; 4) ’r-m
Arame; 5) K-f-[ti-w] Keftiu (Philistia); 6) ’Iwnti-Sty Tent-dwellers of Nubia; 7) Tḥnw Tehenu
land (Libya); 8) [Mn]tyw nw Stt Bedouin of Sinai; 9) Š3-sw Shasu (Bedouin of Retenu):

Shasu Sinai Libya Nubia Philistia Arame Naharin Nubia Shinar

(Bedouin) Bedouin Land Tent-dwellers (Land) (?) People Land Land

According to the Bible, Moses commanded the Israelites, after they arrived in
Palestine to have the edges of their clothing frayed and to wear tassels at the four corners
of these garments (Nb 15:38-40; Dt 22:12). This coincidence in clothing reinforces the
identification of Shasu (former Hyksos) with the Israelites of the Bible123. Although the
Shasu are often mentioned during
Ramses II’s reign they no longer
appear in the conventional list of the
nine hereditary enemies of Egypt124 as
can be seen on the temple at Abydos
(opposite figure)125.
Epilogue: most Egyptologists and Hebrew scholars have something in common,
they (almost) all claim that God's name (Yehowah) was not known to the ancient times and
therefore its true pronunciation is unknown to us, saying that Jehovah is a barbarism. This
absurdity is easy to refute, indeed, how is it possible that Mesha, a Moabite king (900-870
BCE), knew the name of the God of Israel, IeHUA (on line 18 of his stele), vocalized
exactly as the one written by Amenhotep III (Yehua), five centuries earlier?
If the name of God was hardly used in the 2nd century CE it had not completely
disappeared. In addition, the Yahû substitute (Iaô in Greek) was much more widespread
than the “Name read according to its letters”: Yehowah (Ieôa in Greek). A historical review
of the period from 100 to 1200 CE enables us to understand what happened, who
preserved God's name and why it went into “hibernation” for about one millenium.
123 W.G. DEVER - Aux origines d'Israël. Quand la Bible dit vrai
Paris 2003 Éd. Bayard p. 167
A. F. RAINEY - Israel in Merneptah’s Inscription and Reliefs
in: Israel Exploration Journal 51 (2001) pp. 57–75
D.B. REDFORD - The Hyksos Invasion in History and Tradition
in: Orientalia 39 (1970) pp. 1-51.
124 Keftiu “those of Crete” was a colony from Crete (Dt 2:23, Jr 47:4, Am 9:7), but it disappeared after the destruction of the palace of

Knossos around. 1370 BCE and became “Philistia land” afterward. Salmanazar I destroyed Mitanni in 1264 BCE.
125 From left to right: 1) Tḥnw Tehenu (Libya); 2) N-h-r-n Naharin (Mitanni); 3) Sn-g-r Shinar; 4) Ḫ-t Hatti; 5) K-f-ti-w Keftiu (Philistia);

6) ’I-s-y Asy (Cyprus?); 7) Š3t Shat (Sinai?); 8) ’I-s-rw Assur; 9) Pd-t-ÿ šw-w Bowmen of Shu[tu] (Moab? instead of Shasu).
 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 39

GOD’S NAME THROUGH THE DARK AGES (100-1200 CE)

• After 100 CE, most Christians are Gentile Christians living in Greece (Rv 1:4) who,
from 150 CE, made a strong connection between the Lord god (Jesus) and the god
Lord. The two lords were completely merged after 300 CE (beginning of the Trinity).
For these Christians (Roman Catholics), God’s name was KS (“Lord”) or IHS (“Jesus”).

• After 50 CE, Judeo-Christians who spoke mainly Aramaic are called “Nazarenes” in
Greek (Ac 24:5) or “Nozrim” in Hebrew. They soon split into numerous small sects
(Ebionites, Elcesaites, Hermits, etc.) whose main teaching about God was his
uniqueness. Because they spoke Aramaic, they have not substantially spread outside
Palestine except in the south of Babylonia. With the arrival of Islam some Jewish
Christians were converted and introduced into Muslim religion the concept of a unique
god with 99 beautiful names (one hundredth name being the supreme name).
• After 90 CE, the majority of Jews are affiliated to the Jewish Council (the rabbinate)
founded at Yabne by Johanan ben Zakai, whose main objective was to keep the
synagogue worship and preserve the oral teaching (from the Pharisees). When Hebrew
is no longer spoken after 200 CE, this oral teaching (Mishnah) will be in writing
(Talmud of Jerusalem). Some Jewish mystics began to teach that God has many names
beside the great name YHW (Sefer Yetzirah I:15). In time, Kabbalists (“Those who have
received [the knowledge]”) will look at each of the 72 triads and consider them as one of
the 72 Names of God, others will teach that God’s name is the Torah itself. When
Arabic began replacing Aramaic, the Babylonian rabbis decided to fix the Talmud (c.
500 CE), which became the reference (Babylonian Talmud).
40

• After 135 CE, a minority of Jews (Sadducees, Essenians, etc.) continued to copy the
Bible without being affiliated to any religious organizations. We do not know what
happened to the Sadducees and Essenes after the Bar Kokhba revolt (132-135), but the
groups of Jewish scribe-scholars who worked to copy the Torah between the 6th and
10th centuries CE, are called the Masoretes ("Tradition Keepers"). The ben Asher family
of Masoretes was largely responsible for the preservation and production of the
Masoretic Text, although an alternate Masoretic text of the ben Naphtali Masoretes,
which differs slightly from the ben Asher text, existed. The halakhic authority
Maimonides (1138-1204) endorsed the ben Asher as superior, although the Egyptian
Jewish scholar, Saadya Gaon al-Fayyumi (882-942), had preferred the ben Naphtali
system. The ben Asher family and the majority of the Masoretes have been Karaites126.
As a result the Karaites127 were the successors of the Sopherim (Sadducean scribes).
The transmission of the biblical text and God's name (YHWH) was made through
the Masoretes (Karaites). When I was beginning to study the Bible (c. 1980) I naively took
the best Hebrew grammar of my time in order to understand how to read God's name in
Hebrew (since I have became myself a Hebrew scholar I am much less naive with this kind
of popularizing book): The uncorrected word in the text is the Kethîbh (‫כְּ תִ יב‬, 'it is written'). The
corrected reading in the margin or footnote is the Qerê (‫ק ְֵרי‬, 'to be read'). NOTE: In the unpointed scrolls
read in the Synagogues, the Kethibh (i.e. the uncorrected form) is similarly retained in the text, but no Qere
(corrected form) is given in the margin or footnote. The reader is expected to be familiar with the text and to
know when a word is to be corrected, i.e. to read the Qere instead of the (written) Kethibh (...) Another type
of deliberate change in reading due, in this case, to reverence, is the Divine name ‫ יַהֲ וֶה‬ou ‫( יַהְ וֶה‬Yahaweh or
Yahweh). The Divine name was considered too sacred to be pronounced; so the consonants of this word were
written in the text (Kethibh), but the word read (Qere) was ‫( אֲ דֹנָי‬meaning 'Lord'). The consonants of the
(Kethibh) ‫ יהוה‬were given the vowels of the (Qere) ‫ אֲ דֹנָי‬namely ◌ָ ֹ ◌ְ producing the impossible form ‫יְהוָֹה‬
(Yehōwâ). Since, however, the Divine name occurs so often in the Bible, the printed editions do not put the
reading required (Qere) in the margin or footnote; the reader is expected to substitute the Qere for Kethibh,
without having his attention drawn to it every time it occurs. For this reason it has been called Qere
Perpetuum, i.e. permanent Qere128. The scientific explanation is repeated ad nauseum by all
Hebrew scholars worthy of the name. However, if one makes the effort to check this
sweeping statement (“the reader is expected to be familiar”) it is easy to see that this is a
concentrate of nonsense. First, the printed editions do not put the reading required (Qere)
in the margin or footnote, the qere perpetuum (Latin words always impress more), it is for the
simple reason: the qere perpetuum does not exist! The only information from the Masoretes
about this important topic appears in their note on Genesis 18:3, which refers to the Great
Masora listing the 134 places where the Sopherim (precursors of Masoretes) had noted that
the Tetragram was replaced by Adonay, the traditional substitute. It is therefore not a
permanent Qere since it only covered 134 reading corrections, in addition, when the divine
name was associated with the word Adonay, it was read Elohim instead of Adonay, proving
126 Karaite Judaism "Readers [of the Hebrew Scriptures]" is a Jewish movement characterized by the recognition of the Tanakh alone as

its supreme legal authority in Jewish religious law and theology. It is distinct from mainstream Rabbinic Judaism, which considers the
Oral Torah, as codified in the Talmud and subsequent works to be authoritative interpretations of the Torah. Karaites maintain that all
of the divine commandments handed down to Moses by God were recorded in the written Torah without additional Oral Law or
explanation. As a result, Karaite Jews do not accept as binding the written collections of the oral tradition in the Midrash or Talmud.
127 According to Rabbi Abraham ben David, in his Sefer HaQabbalah, the Karaite movement crystallized in Baghdad in the Gaonic period

(c. 600-1050 CE), under the Abbasid Caliphate in what is present-day Iraq. The Geonim played a prominent and decisive role in the
transmission and teaching of Torah and Jewish law. Anan Ben David (c. 715-795) is considered to be a major founder of the Karaite
movement. Karaites were already living in Egypt in the first half of the 7th century, the evidence consisting of a legal document that the
Karaite community in Egypt had in its possession until the end of the 19th century, which was said to be stamped by the palm of ’Amr
ibn al-’As, the first Islamic governor of Egypt, in which he ordered the leaders of the Rabbanite community not to interfere in the way of
life of the Karaites nor with the way they celebrate their holidays. This document was reported to be dated 20 AH (641 CE).
128 J. WEINGREEN -A Practical Grammar for Classical Hebrew

Oxford 1959, Ed. Oxford University Press, pp. 22-23.

 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 41

again that this qere was not permanent but only traditional. If we look more closely at the
explanations in this qere perpetuum, we enter into wonderland. First, we read: The consonants of
the (Kethibh) ‫ יהוה‬were given the vowels of the (Qere) ‫ אֲ דֹנָי‬namely ◌ָ ֹ ◌,
ְ which is obviously false
since the word ‫ אֲדֹנָי‬is punctuated by ָ◌ ֹ ֲ◌, not ָ◌ ֹ ְ◌. To reassure the reader, a footnote
adds: The composite shewa which was under the guttural ‫ א‬in the word ‫ אֲ דֹנָי‬becomes a simple shewa under
the ‫ י‬of the Kethibh ‫יְהוָֹה‬. It's absolutely illogical. Indeed, this scholarly explanation is triply
absurd as already noted in 1844 an eminent Hebrew scholar of the Vatican129. First, it is
already untrue in the case of YèHoWiH (‫ )י ֱהוִֹה‬read ’èLoHîM (‫ )אֱֹלהִים‬because, as can be
seen in many codex (cf. Codex of Petrograd dated 916 CE), the vowel è (hatef ségol) of the
qere was not modified into e (shewa) in order to give YeHoWiH (‫)י ְהוִֹה‬. Second, when the
Masoretes indicate a qere, different of ketib, that is precisely not to confuse the two words
(so it would be absurd to read the vowels of the qere with the consonants of the ketib,
unless to be completely ignorant). Third, before the 12th century, the divine name YHWH
was not vocalized e, o, â (shewa, holem, qamats) but only e, â, as can easily be seen in the Biblia
Hebraica Stuttgartensia (Hebrew text for modern Bibles) which excludes grammatical reasons
because it becomes impossible to explain the disappearance of the vowel o in this way,
unless re-invoking a magical process. A final comment on this magical explanation of
permanent qere, the author states: producing the impossible form ‫( יְהוָֹה‬Yehōwâ) and adds in a
footnote to page: The English Jehovah! to mock naïve ones who know nothing in Hebrew.
Naive ones have not to worry, all theophoric names (biblical names beginning with the
divine name) are always vocalized, without exception, according to the so-called impossible
form -‫( י ְהוֹ‬Yehō-) and none begins with Yahaw- (or only with Yah-) the supposedly authentic
form of the divine name. Naive ones are perhaps not those one believed130.
The invention of qere perpetuum raises several questions: why highly competent
Hebraists propagate patently false explanation about God's name? For example, The Anchor
Bible Dictionary reads (Yahweh): The pronunciation of yhwh as Yahweh is a scholarly guess. Hebrew
biblical mss were principally consonantal in spelling until well into the current era. The pronunciation of
words was transmitted in a separate oral tradition. The Tetragrammaton was not pronounced at all, the
word ˒ădonāy, “my Lord,” being pronounced in its place; ˒elōhîm, “God,” was substituted in cases of the
combination ˒ădonāy yhwh (305 times; e.g., Gen 15:2). (This sort of reading in MT is called a qere
perpetuum.) Though the consonants remained, the original pronunciation was eventually lost. When the
Jewish scholars (called Masoretes) added vowel signs to biblical mss some time before the 10th century
A.D., the Tetragrammaton was punctuated with the vowels of the word “Adonai” or “Elohim” to indicate
that the reader should read “Lord” or “God” instead of accidentally pronouncing the sacred name.
The form “Jehovah” results from reading the consonants of the Tetragrammaton with the vowels of the
surrogate word Adonai. Why do the Jews refuse to read God's name as it is written and used
to read instead Adonay “My Lord” (a plural of majesty)? Why God's name is it usually
punctuated e, â (shewa, qamats) by the Masoretes, making its reading impossible since the 4
consonants (YHWH) of God's name must have at least 3 vowels (long or short) in order to
be read, like the words ’aDoNâY and ’èLoHîM which have 4 consonants and 3 vowels?
What happened between 100 and 1200 CE regarding copies of the Hebrew Bible?
We have seen that until 150 CE the Sopherim knew the surrogate Yahû “Yah himself” (Iaô
in Greek) of God's name as well as its pronunciation, Yehowah (Ieôa/Iôa in Greek). In
contrast after 150 CE, rabbis have systematically used the Hebrew substitute: Hashem (‫) ַהשֵׁם‬
“The Name” in place of the Tetragram in their documents. This substitute is commonly
used in its Aramaic form, Shema (‫שׁמָא‬ ְ ), in the Talmud and in the Masoretic comments
129 P.L.B. DRACH – De l'harmonie entre l'Église et la synagogue
Gent (Belgium) 1978. Ed. Socii Sancti Michaelis pp.480-481.
130 If the name was Jahweh, why there is absolutely no theophoric name with Jau- or Ja- in the Septuagint, but always with Jô- ?
42

because the Aramaic language had replaced Hebrew after 135 CE. Since Hebrew will
gradually ceased to be spoken, the text of the Bible will start to be vocalized from 500 CE,
nevertheless, the Tetragram is never vocalized before 900 CE, because none has the vowel
points of Adonay and a few copies have only an "a" beneath the last H of the Tetragram.
This period is not well known because from 90 to 250 CE, the rabbis have gradually
replaced the priestly copies corrected at the temple by Sadducees scribes by their own
copies written for their synagogues (now corrected by Pharisaic rabbis). It is noteworthy
that, because Aramaic itself had gradually ceased to be spoken, Nestorian Syriacs began to
punctuate their texts in order to fix the pronunciation of vowels around 400 CE131. After
the first conquests of Muhammad and the expansion of Islam, Arabic had replaced
Aramaic (c. 650 CE). As a result, when the Masoretes started to vocalize the Hebrew Bible,
they were speaking Arabic as well as Aramaic, but not Hebrew. Contrary to what is written
everywhere the Masoretes have never vocalized the Tetragram with the vowels of Adonay.
The Hebrew Bible was initially vocalized with the Palestinian punctuation (c. 500-700),
then Babylonian (c. 700-900) and finally Tiberian after 900 CE (most codices):
Date Bible Codex ketib with the vowels of its qere Latin vocalization
900?< Geniza132 ** ‫ י ְהוָה‬YeHWâH ‫ י ְהוִה‬YeHWiH
c. 900 Berlin133 ‫ יהוָה‬YHWâH ‫ יהוה‬YHWH
916 Petrograd134 ** ‫ יהוה‬YHWH ‫ י ֱהֹוִה‬YèHoWiH
930 Aleppo135 ‫ י ְהוָה‬YeHWâH ‫ י ְהוִֹה‬YeHoWiH
950 Or.4445136 ‫ י ְהוָה‬YeHWâH ‫ י ְהוִה‬YeHWiH
953 T-S A 39.11137 ** ‫ י ֲהֹוָה‬YaHoWâH ‫ י ֱהֹוִה‬YèHoWiH
1008 BHS Leningrad B19a138 ‫ י ְהוָה‬YeHWâH ‫ י ְהוִה‬YeHWiH
c. 1100 Urbinati ebr. 2139 ‫ יהוָה‬YHWâH ‫ יהוִה‬YHWiH
1105 Reuchlianus140 ‫ י ְהוָה‬YeHWâH ‫ י ֱהוִה‬YèHWiH (Iheuhe/ Ieue)
1278 BHK Raymond Martin141 ‫ י ְהוָה‬YeHWâH ‫ י ֱהֹוִה‬YèHoWiH (Yohoua)
1286 Paris Hébreu 1 ‫ י ְהוָה‬YeHWâH ‫ י ֱהֹוִה‬YèHoWiH (Yohouah)
c. 1300 Palatini142 (Sperber) ‫ יהוָה‬YHWâH ‫ י ֱהֹוִה‬YèHoWiH (Ihouah)
** (Babylonian punctuation)
The review of some codices copied and punctuated between 900 and 1300 CE
(above) shows that the so-called “permanent qere” is a fable because there are almost as
many qeres as there are codices. Is also noted that the Christians143 of that time who have
vocalized the Tetragram in Latin were not influenced by the qere e, â (or e, o, â) appearing in
their codices. We also note that within the same codex even the qeres of some words may
be different from a codex to another144 and there is no standardization of the qeres used for
the Tetragram. For example, in the B19a codex, which is considered by experts as one of
131 J.F. HEALEY - Les débuts de l'alphabet. Vers l'alphabet arabe
in: La naissance des écritures Paris 1994 Éd. Seuil p. 312.
132 I. YEIVIN (Jerusalem 1973, Ed. Makor Publishing Ltd).
133 I. YEIVIN (Jerusalem 1972, Ed. Makor Publishing Ltd).
134 H.L. STACK - Codex Babylonian of Petrograd (New York 1971 Ed. Ktav Publishing House).
135 M.H. Goshen Gottstein (Jerusalem 1976, Ed. Magnes Press).
136 http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Or_4445
137 C. SIRAT - Codices litteris exarati (...) 1020 Tome I (Turnout 1997 Éd. Brepols) pp. 80-85.
138 D.S. LOEWINGER (Jerusalem 1971, Ed. Makor Publishing).
139 E. LEVINE (Jerusalem 1980, Ed. Makor Publishing Ltd).
140 A. SPERBER (Copenhagen 1956, Ed Ejnar Munksgaard).
141 R. MARTINI - Pvgio Christianorvm

Paris 1300? Bibliothèque Sainte Geneviève ms.1405 fol. 162b.

142 A. SPERBER (Copenhagen 1959, Ed Ejnar Munksgaard).
143 Ieue (Joachim of Flora 1130-1202; Pope Innocent III 1160-1216); Yohoua (Raymond Martini 1220-1284); Yohouah (Porchetus de

Salvaticis ?-1315); Yehabe (Alfonso de Valladolid 1270-1340).

144 E. MARTÍN-CONTRERAS -The Phenomenon Qere We La’ Ketib in the Main Biblical Codices: New Data

in: Vetus Testamentum 61 (2011), pp. 1-11.

 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 43

the best copies of the Hebrew text of the Bible, there are 7 different qeres for the
Tetragram. The most frequent variant being YeHoWaH (52) instead of YeHWaH and
YeHoWiH (32) instead of YeHWiH.
BHS ketib with the vowels of its qere Number of variants
usual ‫ י ְהוָה‬YeHWâH ‫ י ְהוִה‬YeHWiH
Gn 3:14 ‫ י ְהֹוָה‬YeHoWâH ‫ י ֱהוִה‬YèHWiH Gn 15:2, 8 52 1
Ps 144:15 ‫ י ֲהוָה‬YaHWâH ‫ י ְהוִֹה‬YeHoWiH 1K 2:26 1 32
‫ י ֱהֹוִה‬YèHoWiH Jg 16:28 1
The situation is quite similar in the other codices. The most common variant is
YeHoWâH, instead of the usual YeHWâH. The frequent presence of the cantillation sign
(rebia) which merges with the vowel o (holem) facilitated these variants. From the 12th to 15th
century YeHWâH form (see the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia) has evolved progressively into
YeHoWâH (see the Biblia Hebraica Kittel) will become the standard form in Jewish Bibles.
Period event ketib substitute qere
+600+900 After the vocalization of the text YHWH ŠeMâ’ Adonay
+900+1300 Period of standardization YHWH YeHWâH Adonay
+1300+1500 Period of stabilization YHWH YeHoWâH Adonay
The current qere of God's name (YHWH), as found in the Hebrew Bibles, is a
hybrid form consisting of the vowels e, â coming from the Aramaic substitute ŠeMâ’ “The
Name” (HaŠêM in Hebrew) and the vowel o of the traditional qere ’aDoNâY “My Lord”.
Why did the Masoretes not put the vowel points of the usual qere “Adonay” beneath God's
name (“YaHoWâH”), what should have been the more logical choice? To answer this
question we must know that the Masoretes (c. 600-1000) transmitted a tradition received
from the Sopherim (c. 300 BCE to 70 CE) who, surprisingly, have transmitted two genuine
traditions: a writing tradition (ketib) and a reading tradition (qere). The primary reason for
the reading tradition, which is poorly known, is not to correct the writing tradition but
generally to avoid desecration of the holy text. The origin of this ancient reading tradition
comes actually from a misunderstanding of a verse in the Book of Hosea: To court, take your
mother to court! For she is no longer my wife nor am I her husband. She must either remove her whoring
ways from her face and her adulteries from between her breasts (...) I mean to make her pay for the feast-
days on which she burnt incense to the Baals, when she tricked herself out in her earrings and necklaces to
chase after her lovers, and forget me! —declares YHWH (...) When that day comes —declares
YHWH— you will call me, 'My husband', no more will you call me, 'My Baal'. I shall banish the names
of the Baals from her lips and their name will be mentioned no more (Ho 2:4,15-19). As a result the
God of Israel was legitimately called Baal "Lord/ Master" before this time (c. 750 BCE),
but his cult was linked to the Canaanite Baals because the “Lord (baal)” had been
represented by statues, which was idolatry: So the Israelites did what was bad in the eyes of Jehovah
and served the Baals. Thus they abandoned Jehovah, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the
land of Egypt. And they followed other gods, the gods of the peoples who were all around them, and they
bowed down to them and offended Jehovah. They abandoned Jehovah and served Baal and the Ashtaroth
(Jg 2: 11-13). The Ashtaroth were actually statues of the “Queen of Heaven” (Jr 44:17-19),
the Babylonian goddess Ishtar145. The words “Lords (baalim)” and “Ladies/ Goddesses
(ashtaroth)” are in the plural as they target the statues of the gods (or goddesses). So, when
God asked to stop using the Baal title "Lord / Master" to designate him, some scribes
applied this commandment to a few proper names containing the term baal replacing it
145The Babylonian word Ishtar "star", which is a translation of the Sumerian NIN.AN.A(K) (Innana) "Lady of heaven," gave the Persian
word Esther ("star"), the Greek astron "star" and the Latin aster. Ishtar was the star Venus, named the Lady of heaven because it was the
brightest. Human or animal representations were used for worship was idolatry according to the 10 Commandments (Ex 20: 3-5).
44

with another. In fact the exhortation not to mention the name of other gods was
concerning only their invocation in worship and not their pronunciation (Ex 23:13; Jos
23:7), since the Bible itself mentions the names of several false gods: Solomon became a
follower of Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians, and of Milkom, the Ammonite abomination (...) Then it
was that Solomon built a high place for Kemosh146, the abomination of Moab, on the mountain to the east
of Jerusalem, and to Milkom, the abomination of the Ammonites (...) for he has forsaken me to worship
Astarte the goddess of the Sidonians, Kemosh the god of Moab, Milkom the god of the Ammonites (1K
11:5,7,33). The Israelites had to therefore only destroy the names of idols (Dt 12:3),
because the purpose of the prophets of the Lord “Baal” was to make forget the name of
the Lord of Israel: They are doing their best, by means of the dreams that they keep telling each other, to
make my people forget my name, just as their ancestors forgot my name in favour of Baal (Jr 23:27; Ps
44:20). The process of replacing some “bad names” by a substitute was carried out by some
zealous scribes but was not systematic as we can see in the following examples:
Name Septuagint Masoretic text Substitute Reference
Baal-yada El-iade Beel-yada Be’el 1Ch 14:7
Baal-yah Baal-ia Beal-yah (qere) 1Ch 12:5
Ish-Baal As-bel Ash-bel Be’el 1Ch 8:1
Ish-Baal Asa-bal Esh-baal - 1Ch 8:33
Ish-Baal Je-bosthe Ish-boshet boshet 2Sa 2:8
Jerub-Baal Jero-baal Jerub-baal - Jg 6:32
Jerub-Baal Jero-baal Jerub-beshet (qere) 2Sa 11:21
Mephi-Baal Mephi-bosthe Mephi-boshet boshet 2Sa 4:4
Baal-zebul Baal fly Baal-zebub zebub 2Ki 1:16 (Mt 10:25)
Baal-zebul Baal fly (Beel-zebul) Be’el (Mk 3:22)
Abed-Nabu Abde-Nagô Abed-Negô Nagû Dn 2:49
Generally the word baal "lord" was replaced by boshèt "shame" or beel "blah blah",
but as this process alters the biblical text, what was strictly forbidden (Dt 4:2; 24:32), it has
been replaced (from the 3rd century BCE) by the method of qere/ ketib of pronouncing (not
substituting) another name instead of what was written.
Name Septuagint Masoretic text Qere meaning Reference
Jerub-Baal Jero-baal Jerub-beshet bošet shame 2Sa 11:21
Tapheth Tapheth Topheth bošet shame 2K 23:10
Molok / Molok / Molek / bošet shame Am 5 :26
Kaiwan Raiphan (Kaywan) Kiywun šiquṣ abomination
Ishtart Astarte Ashtoret ha-bošet the shame 2K 23:13
The Masoretes kept this old tradition (observed in Palestine but not outside) by
indicating next to the written word the vowels of the word to be read. For example, the
god Molok (Ac 7:43) was written MLK in the Hebraic Bible, so the Masoretes punctuated
this word with the vowels o, è of the word BoŠèT to indicate that MLK should be read
boshèt, or ‘shame’. Thus, one obtains, in the text, the hybrid form MoLèK (1K 11:7) which
the Septuagint vocalized Molok. Many modern Bibles, however produced by translators
who did not know of this complex system147, transcribe it simply Molèk, actually mixing the
vowels o, è of the word to be read boshèt with the consonants MLK of the written word.
Thus, to be unaware that this system had been conceived at first to protect the exclusivity
of the Name, really is ‘a shame’.
146Kemosh was vocalized Kamish (ka-mi-iš) at Ebla, Kamûsh (ka-am-muš) in Assyria and presumably Kamosh in Palestine (cf. LXX).
147The Babylonian god Kaiwanou is written KYWN in the Hebrew text and is vocalized with the vowels of of the word ŠiQuṢ
"abomination", which gave the hybrid form KiYWuN instead of KaYWaN. The Kaiwan god is the name given to Saturn (deified star),
this god was called Raïphan by the Greeks and is spelled Remphan in the Gospels (Acts 7:43).
 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 45

To summarize the process of qere/ ketib over time:

Period event ketib substitute qere
-1000-500 B‘L - Ba‘al
-500-300 After the Babylonian exile B‘L BŠT Boshet
-300+150 After translation of the LXX B‘L - Boshet/ (Be‘el)
For example, the word boshèt “shame” was first a substitute (written word in place
of ketib) of baal “lord”, as in Ishbosheth instead of Ishbaal, before being a qere (word read
in place of ketib). Similarly, Adonay was initially a substitute for YHWH before being a qere.
Sometimes, Elohim was also a substitute for YHWH (compare Psalms 14 and 53).
Period event ketib substitute qere
-1000-500 Israelites in Palestine YHWH - Yehowâ
-500-300 After the Babylonian exile YHWH YHW ’Adonay/ ’Elohim
-300+150 After the translation of the LXX YHWH ’DNY ’Adonay/ (’Elohim)
+150+600 After the ban of pronouncing YHWH YHWH H[ŠM] ’Adonay
+600+900 Palestinian then Babylonian punctuation YHWH Shemâ’ ’Adonay
Thus, the reading tradition preserved by the Masoretes comes from Sopherim who
themselves had kept a tradition going back to around 300 BCE (highlighted in green). The
Masoretes, were they aware of the genuine pronunciation of the Tetragram?
Yefet ben Eli (c. 920-1010) was perhaps the foremost Karaite commentator on the
Bible, during the "Golden Age of Karaism". He was a native of Basra (in present-day Iraq).
Later in his life, he moved to Jerusalem, between 950 and 980, where he died. The Karaites
distinguished him by the epithet maskil ha-Golah (teacher of the Exile). His commentaries
were written in Arabic, and covered the entire Tanakh (Old Testament). They were
accompanied by a very literal translation of the Hebrew text, which often violated the rules
of Arabic grammar. In his books the Tetragram ‫ יהוה‬is represented most often in the large
Hebrew text as (‫ﺍاﺫذﻭوﻥنـﺍاﻱي )אדני‬. In other citations of the Hebrew text the Tetragram is most
often represented by ‫ ייי‬or ‫יוי‬. Furthermore Yefet ben Eli distinguishes between ‫יהוה‬/‫אללה‬
and ‫אלהים‬/‫אלה‬. Accordingly the translation of ‫ אללה‬is always The Lord and ‫ אלה‬is God148.
In some exceptional cases he also vocalized the Tetragram “Yahuwa”, like in his Arabic
translation of the book of Psalms149 (Ps 83:18, below, and also Ps 92:8,9).

148 I. SASSON - Methods and Approach in Yefet Ben ‘Ali Al-Basri's Translation and Commentary on the Book of Proverbs
PhD in Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages, Ed. The Jewish Theological Seminary (2010), pp. 39,344.
149 J.J.L. BARGÈS - Libri psalmorum David Regis et prophetae. Versio à R. Yaphet ben Heli

Paris 1861, Ed. Instituti Imperialis Gallicani Bibliopolam, pp. 167,184.

46

It cannot be a mistake, because the text concerns precisely God's name: Let them
know that you alone bear the name of Yahuwa, Most High over all the earth (Ps 83:18). Furthermore
one of the leading Karaite scholars of that time, Jacob al-Qirqisani, a native of Upper
Mesopotamia, or the general vicinity of Baghdad, wrote in his book150 entitled Kitab al-
’Anwar (in 937 CE): Some of the Karaites of Khorasan ignore “ketib and qere” and read only what is
written. Some of them do in the case of the Name which is written Yod He (YHWH) and maintain that
he who read reads it as Aleph Daleth (Adonay) is an unbeliever. Qirqisani also mentioned the
ancient tradition of rendering the Tetragram as al-rabb (the Lord) or ’allah (the God)151. So,
why Yefet ben Eli did he use Yahuwa rather than Yehuwa, given the name Jesus, for
example, can be better transcribed Yesua into Arabic (‫ )ﻱيﺱسﻭوﻉع‬rather than the current Yasu.
In fact he used the ancient Hebrew substitute Yahû “Yah-himself”, which is pronounced
correctly Yahuwa in Arabic. For example, a manuscript (a charm of protection dated c. 940
CE) containing a text of 50 lines, reads152:

1) In the name of God the merciful, the compassionate. In the name of God

8) I pray thee by thy names, numerous, large,

9) desirable, satisfactory, powerful, unapproachable,
10) perfect, complete, pure, [with whom] we should
11) name nobody else but you. O God, I pray thee by thy
12) names that do not [pass? and] do not cease to which only you respond
13) [with] the reward, by which your patronage is completed, to which you respond
14) to that one who invokes thee. O God, O God, O God, I pray thee

27) [...] and a cross. And by thy names, the illustrious ones, the pure ones
28) the purified ones, the praised ones, the sublime ones, the great ones, the noble ones
29) the beautiful ones: Yâh, Yâh, Yâh, Huwa, Huwa, Huwa, O God

50) and through the seal of Solomon son of David

150 B. CHIESA, W. LOCKWOOD – Yaqub al-Qirqisani on Jewish Sects and Christianity

in: Judentum und Umwelt 10 (Frankfurt 1984), p. 155.
151 M. POLYAQ – The Karaite Tradition of Arabic Bible Translation:

Leiden 1997, Ed. Brill, p. 70.

152 M. POLYAQ – Les grottes de Murabba‘ât

Oxford 1961, Ed. Clarendon Press, pp. 283-290.

 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 47

Huwa is the personal pronoun of the 3rd person, singular, masculine, HE, i.e. God,
or He is. It occurs in the Qur’an in this sense, e.g. Surah III:1 ‫ﺍاﻝلﺍاﺓة ﺍاﻝلﺍا ﺍاﻝلﻩه ﻝلﺍا‬Allahu la ilaha illa
Huwa, “God there is no god but HE”. The word is often used by Sufi mystics in this form:
‫ﻡمﻥن ﻱيﺍا ﻩهﻭو ﻱيﺍا ﻩهﻭو ﺍاﻝلﺍا ﻩهﻭو ﻡمﺍا ﻱيﻉعﻝلﻡم ﻝلﺍا‬ya hu, ya hu, ya man la ya’lamu ma hu illa hu, “O He (who is), O He
(who is), O He whom no one knows what He Himself is but Himself.” Some commentators have
supposed the word Hu to stand for the exalted name of God, the Ismu ‘l-a’zam (“the
supreme name”) which Muslim doctors say is only known to God.
Mansur al-Hallaj (858-922), a Persian mystic, revolutionary writer and teacher of
Sufism, wrote (in Arabic): Here are the words of which sense seemed ambiguous. Know that temples
hold by His Yâhuwah and that bodies are being moved by His Yâsîn. Now Huwa and Sîn are two roads
which end into the knowledge of the original point153. Yâ-Sîn is a reference to the Sura 36 and Yâ-
Huwah wrote Y’HWH in Arabic, makes reference to the Hebrew Tetragram (YHWH) but
the name Yâhuwah was understood Yâ Huwa “Oh-He” in Arabic. Mansur al-Hallaj was
rejected as madman by his teacher, al-Junayd, and died crucified in Bagdad as a heretic.
However the Yâhuwah vocalization have influenced several imams, such as Fakhr ad-Din
ar-Razi (1149-1209), a Persian Sunni Muslim theologian who, knowing the 99 beautiful
names of God, explained that the supreme Name (ism-al-a‘ẓam) of God was Yâ Huwa not
Allâh154. It is noteworthy the name Yahuwah is still found in a few Arabic Bibles155.
As a result, some Karaites have indeed pronounced God's name but they used its
Hebrew substitute Yahû “Yah-himself”, which was pronounced Yahuwa in Arabic and
understood in this language as “Oh Him”. Amazingly, Jews of that time were not interested
anymore in the pronunciation of God's name, but only about the symbolic meaning or
esoteric understanding of its letters. For example, Abraham ibn Ezra (1092-1167) wrote a
book entitled the Book of the Name (Sefer ha-Shem) in which he establishes links between
digital and also zodiacal values from the letters of the Tetragram. Moreover Philosophy,
Gnosticism and mystical even astrological beliefs became increasingly influential at that
time mainly due to the Sepher Yetzirah (“Book of Forming”) which speculated on the letters
of the divine names. In order to contend with such influences Maimonides (1138-1204) a
Jewish scholar and famous Talmudist, put forward a whole new definition of Judaism. His
reasoning centred on the Name of God, the Tetragram, which was explained in his book
entitled The Guide of the Perplexed (Book I, ch. 64), written in 1190. There he exposed the
following powerful reasoning: the God of the philosophers did not require worship only
polite acknowledgement of his existence, since it would be impossible to establish relations
with a nameless God (Elohim). Then he proved that the Tetragram YHWH is the personal
name of God, that is to say the name distinctly read (Shem ha-mephorash), which is different
from all the other names such as: Adonay, Shadday, Elohim (which are only divine titles
having an etymology), because the Tetragram has no etymology.
However, Maimonides knew well the problem of the pronunciation, since Jewish
tradition stated that it had been lost. On the other hand, he also knew that some Jews
believed in the almost magical influence of the letters or the precise pronunciation of
divine names, but he warned his readers against such practices as being pure invention or
foolishness. The remarkable aspect of his argumentation lies in the fact that he managed to
avoid controversy on such a sensitive subject. He asserted that in fact it was only true
153 L. MASSIGNON – Akhbar al-Hallâj
Paris 1975, Éd. Vrin p. 113 (French translation), p. 26 (Arabic text).
154 IBN ‘ATA’ ALLÂH - Traité sur le nom ALLÂH (translated into French by Maurice Glotton)

Paris1981, Ed. Les Deux Océans, pp. 146-147.

155 FARES CHIDIAQ & WILLIAM WATTS -The Holy Bible

London, 1857 (Yahuwah in Ex 6:3, 6, 8, etc.)

THE DOMINICAN FATHERS -The Dominican Bible
Iraq, 1875 (Yahuwah in footnote of Ex 3:14 but Yahwah in footnote of Ex 6:3).
48

worship which had been lost, and not the authentic pronunciation of the Tetragram, since
this was still possible according to its letters. To support this basic idea (true worship is
more important than correct pronunciation), he quoted Sotah 38a to prove that the name is
the essence of God and that is the reason it should not be misused, then he quoted the text
of Zechariah 14:9 to prove the oneness of this name, also Sifre Numbers 6:23-27 to show
that the priests were obliged to bless by this name only. Then, to prove that the
pronunciation of the Name did not pose any problem in the past, and that it had no
magical aspect, he quoted Kiddushin 71a, which said that this name was passed on by certain
rabbis to their sons. Also, according to Yoma 39b, this pronunciation was widely used
before the priesthood of Simon the Just, which proved the insignificance of a magical
concept, because at this time, the Name was used for its spiritual not supernatural aspect.
Maimonides insisted on the fact that what was necessary to find was the spirituality
connected to this Name, and not the exact pronunciation. In order to demonstrate this
important idea of understanding the sense and not the sound conveyed by this name, he
quoted a relevant example. Exodus 6:3 indicates that before Moses the Name was not
known. Naturally this refers to the exact meaning of the Name, and not its pronunciation,
because it would be unreasonable to believe that a correct pronunciation would have
suddenly been able to incite the Israelites to action, unless the pronunciation had magical
power, a supposition disproved by subsequent events. To conclude his demonstration,
Maimonides quoted Exodus 3:14 to show that the expression ehyeh asher ehyeh, which can be
translated as: I shall be who I shall be, was above all a spiritual teaching. Because the
Tetragram had no linguistic etymology, this link with the verb “to be (hayah)” expressed
above all a religious etymology, that is a teaching about God, who can be defined as: the
Being who is the being or the necessary being. It is interesting to note that Judah Halevi (1075-
1141), another Jewish scholar, put forward almost the same arguments in his book The
Kuzari (Sefer ha-Kurazi) published in 1140. He wrote that the main difference between the
God of Abraham and the God of Aristotle was the Tetragram (Kuzari IV:16). He proved
also that this name was the personal name of God (IV:1) and that it meant according to the
Bible: He will be with you. To show once again that it was the meaning of this name which
was important and not the pronunciation, he quoted Exodus 5:2 where Pharaoh asked to
know the Name: not the pronunciation which he used, but the authority of this Name
(IV:15). He pointed out that the letters of the Tetragram have the remarkable property of
being “mother of reading”, that is the vowels associated with other consonants, much as the
spirit is associated with the body and makes it live: Although its meaning is hidden, the letters of
which it is composed speak. For it is the letters alef, hē, wāv and yōd which cause all consonants to be
sounded, as no letter can be pronounced as long as it is not supported by one of these four, viz. â by alef, and
hē, û by wāv, and î by yōd. They form, so to speak, the spirit in the bodies of the consonants. The name
Oh is like the Tetragrammaton (Ex III:14). As to EH’YEH, it can be derived from the latter name, or
from the root hāyāh (“to be”), and its tendency is to prevent the human mind from pondering over an
incomprehensible but real entity (The Kuzari IV:3).

GOD’S NAME, ITS REBIRTH INSIDE CHRISTENDOM (1200-1600 CE)

Judah Halevi and Maimonides gave convergent information which marked a
turning point in the history of the Name. However, the expression “pronounced according to its
letters” which Maimonides used is strictly exact only in Hebrew (vowel letters as pointed out
by Judah Halevi, thus Y-H-W-H can be read I-H-U-A). Joachim of Flora gave a Greek
transliteration I-E-U-E of Y-H-W-H (i.e. Y = I, H = E, W = U), in his Expositio in
Apocalypsim (finished in 1195). He also used the expression: Adonay IEUE tetragramaton
 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 49

nomen in another book entitled Liber Figurarum (c. 1202). As seen in the illustration156
(below), Joachim of Flora also gave the three other names: IE, EV, VE, which he
associated with the Father (IE), the Son (EV) and the Holy Spirit (VE)!

The vocalization of the Tetragram (IEUE) associated with the name of Jesus (EU)
would soon be improved by Pope Innocent III in one of his sermons157 written around
1200. Indeed, he noticed that the Hebraic letters of the Tetragram Ioth, Eth, Vau (that is Y,
H, W) were used as vowels, and that the name IESUS had exactly the same vowels I, E and
U as the divine name. Like Joachim of Flora, he broke up the divine name IEUE into IE-
EU-UE, which led him to suppose that the name IE-SUS contained God's name IE. He
also drew a parallel between the name written IEVE, pronounced Adonai, and the name
written IHS but pronounced IESUS.
However, the explanations of Maimonides concerning God’s name “read as it is
written” have really been understood only when Christian scholars began to take an interest
in Hebrew which occurred when a few Jews had converted to Catholicism. These Jews, like
Petrus Alfunsi (1062-1110), greatly improved the knowledge of Hebrew and above all of
divine Names. With this new knowledge of Hebrew texts, the Dominicans (a powerful
missionary order) decided on a confrontation with the Jewish Authorities. The Disputation
of Barcelona (1263) was a formal ordered medieval debate between representatives of
Christianity and Judaism regarding whether or not Jesus was the Messiah158. Since the
Dominicans claimed the victory, Nahmanides felt compelled to publish the controversy.
From this publication Christiani selected certain passages which he construed as
blasphemies against Christianity and denounced to his general Raymond de Penyafort.
King James ordered to a committee the removal of passages deemed offensive from the
Talmud. It consisted of Bishop of Barcelona Arnoldo de Guerbo, Raymond de Penyafort,
156 GIOACCHINO DA FIORE -Expositio in Apocalypsim, Concordia Veteris et Novi Testamenti (c. 1200-1220)
Library of the Seminary of Reggio Emilia, fols. 222-235.
157 INNOCENTII III papæ - Sermones de sanctis. Sermo IV, in circumcisione domini

in: Patrologiæ Latina CCXVII (J.P. Migne Paris 1855 ), pp. 465-470.
158 It was held at the royal palace of King James I of Aragon in the presence of the King, his court, and many prominent ecclesiastical

dignitaries and knights, between Dominican Friar Pablo Christiani, a convert from Judaism to Christianity, and Rabbi Nahmanides
(Ramban), a leading medieval Jewish scholar.
50

and the Dominicans Arnoldo de Legarra, Pedro de Janua and Ramón Martí (1220-1284). In
1250 Ramón Martí, a Catalan Dominican friar and theologian, was one of eight friars
appointed to make a study of oriental languages with the purpose of carrying on a mission
to Jews and Moors. To help Christian theologians to debate better with the rabbis, he
began writing from 1269 (until his death in 1284) a study book of biblical texts in Hebrew:
called Pugio Fidei (“Dagger of Faith”). It is noteworthy that around 1270 appeared the first
works dealing with Hebrew language like those of Roger Bacon (Greek and Hebrew
Grammar) and Williams of Mare (Biblical Glossary of the Hebrew and Greek Vocabulary).
Ramón Martí used the spelling Yohoua159 for God's name in his Pugio Fidei (III:II)
It is clear that this scholar who knew the Hebrew form YeHoWâH, also abbreviated YeYâY
(framed), did not transcribe it Yehouah in Latin as might be expected, but Yohoua. Martini
explained at length the reasons for his choice. He quoted the Talmudic references from
Rabbi Moseh Ben Maymon in his Guide of the Perplexed, especially those of chapters 60-64 of
part I, which concern the
Name. Thus, the Tetragram,
the only name of God (elohim)
according to Zechariah 14:9,
was written in Hebrew Iod He
Vau He, and pronounced
adonai. This name was indicated
by the word shemhamephoras,
which means “the Name
distinctly read” or “the Name
read according to its letters”.
Martini noticed that Abba Saul
(a rabbi of 2nd century) had
forbidden the pronunciation of this
name according to its letters. This
knowledge led Martini to
deduce that the Name Y-h-w-h had to be pronounced I-h-û-â that is Ihoua. However,
because all theophoric names beginning with Yehô-[] in Hebrew had been transcribed Jo-[]
in Latin, like Johannes (John), Martí chose to write Yo-houa instead of I-houa in order to
harmonize this name with all theophoric names like Yohonan (Johannes), Yohoyaqim
(Joiaqim), etc. At that time the scholar transcription Y, instead of I, was frequent (Elohym
for Elohim, Helye for Eli, Ysayas for Isaias, etc.) and the use of the letter H was erratic, for
example, Iesus was written either Hiesu, or Jhesu and Iehsu. Martí did not claim that
Yohoua was the exact pronunciation, but insisted on the necessity of using it, quoting
Isaiah 52:6: For that reason my people will know my name. The Pugio Fidei impressed very much a
few Christian scholars knowing Hebrew.
Most of the academics who followed would not be interested themselves on the
question of the pronunciation. For example, Arnaldus of Villa Nova, a former student of
Ramón Martí, would indeed be most interested in God’s name, shown by his work entitled
Allocutio super Tetragramaton160 (1292), but his considerations of the pronunciation of the
Name are more of cabalistic nature. He mixed the vocalism and symbolism of the letters, in
order to make links between the name ‘Jesus’ and the Tetragram. Although he mentioned
the equivalences of the consonants Y and V with their respective vowels I and U, he did
159 R. MARTINI - Pvgio Christianorvm
Paris (c. 1300), Bibliothèque Sainte Geneviève ms.1405 fol. CLXIIv.
160 J. CARRERAS ARTAU - La Allocutio super Tetragrammaton de Arnoldo de Vilanova.

in: Sefarad 9 (Madrid-Barcelona 1949), pp. 75-105.

 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 51

not come to any conclusion on the pronunciation of the Tetragram but instead he linked
its resemblance written IHVH, with the name of Jesus, written either IHS, or IHESVS. He
then speculated on the place of these letters I, H, V within these names and on their
respective symbolism in proving the Trinity. In contrast a Christian copyist made a lengthy
commentary161 (c. 1300) of the part dedicated to the name of four letters Yohoua (framed)
which is spelled yod he uau he in Hebrew.

Another Christian scholar, Porchetus de Salvaticis, completed a book162: Porchetus’

Victory Against the Ungodly Hebrews (1303), in which he has regularly used the spelling
Yohouah (Ihouah in later versions). Like Martini, he quoted Maimonides to justify his
assertions on the Name. He repeated that the Tetragram, written yod he uau he, was the only
name of God. He quoted verses of Jeremiah’s book (Jr 23:5-6; 33:15-16) to point out that
the Messiah had received God’s name in his name, because, according to these verses, the
name of the Messiah must mean: Yhwh is our righteousness. He insisted on the fact that one
had to mention God's name to be blessed (Ps 20:1,7; 79:6,9; Mi 5:4), and that this name
could not have disappeared, because: only the very name of the wicked ones will rot (Pr 10:7).
Concerning pronunciation, he
showed the absurdity of agreeing
on one hand to pronounce the
shortened name Yah in the
expression Allelu-ia “Praise Yah”
and of refusing on the other
hand to pronounce Yhwh, since
Yah and Yhwh are considered,
each separately, to be God’s
name (Ps 68:4; 83:18); Thus why
allow the pronunciation of one
and not the other?
161 R. MARTI - Incipit phemium pugionem christianorum ad impiorum perfidiam jugulandam et maxime judeorum
Coimbra (c. 1300), Biblioteca Geral Digital Universidade de Coimbra, ms.720 fol. CLXXXIIv, CLXXXIII.
162 PORCHETO DE SALVAIGNIS - Victoria Porcheti adversus impios Hebraeos

Dijon (1380) Bibliothèque municipale de Dijon ms 231 fol. 169.

52

These relevant remarks were reserved for the very small circle of the Christian and
Jewish scholars in their debates. However, most of the population was in deep ignorance
on this subject, and, to make matters worse, some erudite theologians taught their flocks
that it was absurd to name God. For example, the famous theologian Thomas Gallus,
abbot of Verceil, asserted in many of his works on God's name, such as Explanatio de divinis
nominibus (1242), that it was impossible for man to name God.
The Pugio is quoted in the Codex Majoricanus (1381), in which both Yohoua and
Yehoua occur163. A famous Talmudist, Pablo de Sancta Maria of Burgos, converted to
Catholicism in 1390, copied the Bible of Nicholas of Lyra adding his own comments164 to
those already existing, including one concerning the pronunciation of the Name. After
comments on Exodus 3:14, he indicated that the Tetragram was spelt Y.h.b.h (in Spanish b
is pronounced as v), and that this name was very close to the name of Jesus (Y.h.v.‘),
because these two names both had 4 letters, the first letter and the third one being the
same (y and v). He pointed out that the consonants y and v could serve as vowels (for i and
u), and that the Hebraic gutturals, that is the h final and the ayn, were unknown in the Latin
language, which increased the resemblance between these two names (Ihua and Isuâ).
However, he did not vocalize either of these names in the Hebraic language.
Cardinal Nicholas
of Cusa165, an erudite
theologian, was fascinated
by this subject on which
he commented repeatedly
in his sermons. For
example he dedicated his
first sermon (on John 1:1)
to explaining the links
between God's name and
the name of Jesus. For
example, in this sermon
entitled In Principio Erat
Verbum, written around
1428, he explained, based
on Maimonides’ works, the various names of God and the meaning of the Tetragram,
which he vocalized Iehoua166 (framed names). In this sermon167, he began to develop the
idea that Jesus was the “speakable” element (the Word) of the “unspeakable/ ineffable”
God. He explained in another sermon168, written around 1440, that the name of Jesus
“savior” is pronounced Ihesua in Hebrew, and this name “Savior” is also the Word of
God. He indicated that the unspeakable name is Ihehoua in Hebrew. In two other
sermons169, written in 1441, he pursued the connection between the unspeakable Greek
Tetragram, spelt Iot, He, Vau, He, and the “speakable” name of Ihesus which he often
wrote Ihus. Then in a sermon170 written in 1445, he explained in detail the grammatical
163 G.F. MOORE - Notes on the Name ‫יהוה‬in: The American Journal of Theology Vol. 12:1 (Jan., 1908), p. 36.
In his printing of the Pugio (1651), Joseph de Voisin explains (p. 745) what were the Codices he used.
164 PAULUS DE SANCTA MARIA - Additiones ad Postillam Nicolai de Lyra. Vol.I

Bruxelles (1429), Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier, ms. 240 fol. 36-38.
165 In 1459 he became vicar general in the Papal States.
166 NIKOLAUS DE CUSA - Codex Cusanus 220 (fol. 56,57) Berkastel-Kues (Germany) 1430 Bibliothek des Cusanus Stites.
167 NICOLAI DE CUSA - Opera omnia. Sermo I In principio erat verbum

Hamburg 1970 Ed. Felix Meiner. Academia Heidelbergensis Tom.XVI:1, pp. 1-19.
168 NICOLAI DE CUSA - Opera omnia. Sermo XX Nomen eius Jesus (1977) Tom.XVI:3, pp. 301-317.
169 NICOLAI DE CUSA - Opera omnia. Sermo XXIII, XXIV Domine, in lumine vultus tui (1984) Tom.XVI:4, pp. 358-433.
170 NICOLAI DE CUSA - Opera omnia. Sermo XLVIII Dies sanctificatus (1991) Tom.XVII:2, pp. 200-212.
 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 53

reasons permitting a link between these two names. God's name is the Greek Tetragram
which is spelt in Hebrew Ioth, He, Vau, He (YHWH); these four letters serve as vowels,
corresponding to I, E, O, A in Greek, because in this language there is no specific vowel
for the sound OU (the letter U in Greek is pronounced as the French Ü). So, in Greek, the
transcription Ieoua would be more exact than Ieôa and would better reflect the OU sound
of the Hebrew name Ieoua, becoming in Latin Iehova or Ihehova, because the letter H is
inaudible and the vowel U also serves as a consonant (V). He noted finally that the Hebraic
form IEŠUA of the name “Jesus” is distinguished from the divine name only by a holy
letter Š which is interpreted as the “elocution” or the Word of God, also the salvation of
God. He would continue this parallel, between God's name (Ieoua) and the name of Jesus
(Iesoua) in yet another sermon171. However towards the end of his life he wrote several
important works: De Possest (1460), Non Aliud (1462), to explain the purely symbolic
character of God's name which had all names and so none in particular. Contrary to his
books, his sermons were not widely diffused (some of his sermons have only been
published in 1514 by the Hebraist Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples172).
Cultivated readers nevertheless began to take advantage of this important
information. For example, Denis the Carthusian, who was a close friend of Nicholas of
Cusa, was also a fervent reader of Rabbi Paulus (Paul of Burgos). Denis wrote (c. 1455) a
commentary on the book of Exodus Enarrationes in Exodum, in which he explained that
from Rabbi Paulus he knew God's name, vocalized Iehouah (framed) in the printed edition
of 1534173, but tetragrammaton (name replaced?) in a manuscript copy dated c. 1500174.

171 NICOLAI DE CUSA - Opera omnia. Sermo LXXI

Hamburg, Ed. Felix Meiner. Academia Litterarum Heidelbergensis, Tom. XVII:4.
172 JACQUES LEFÈVRE D'ÉTAPLES - Nicolas de Cvsa Excitionvm

Paris 1514 Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal Fol.B.1298(2) fol. XII,XIV,LII,LIV.

173 DIONYSIUS CARTUSIANUS - Enarrationes piae ac eruditae: In quinque Mosaicae legis libros

Quentel, 1534, fol CLVI.

174 DIONYSIUS CARTUSIANUS – Commentarius in Pentateuchum

c. 1500 Österreichische Nationalbibliothek Cod. Ser. n. 12806 fol. 259r-v.

54

As explained by Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, Jesus' name (YHŠW‘) and God's name
(YHWH) in Hebrew were close, but the Greek and Latin transcriptions of these two names
were different. The name Iehošua‘ (YHŠW‘) had been transcribed Iesous (Jesus) in the
Greek Septuagint but Iosue (Joshua)
in the Latin Vulgate. As a result, the
name Jesus was Iosue in the Old
Testament (the Vulgate was the
official Bible of Catholicism) but
Hiesu, Iehsu or Ihesu in the New
Testament. Because of these
fluctuations in the spelling of Jesus’
name, Marsilio Ficino indicated in his
Book of the Christian Religion175,
published (c. 1474), that God's name
was Hiehouahi and that this name
expressed all the tenses of the verb
“to be”. Johannes Wessel Gansfort,
the spiritual father of Martin Luther,
preferred (c. 1476) the form Iohauah
in his treatises176.
Johannes Reuchlin, one of the founders of Hebraic and Greek studies in Europe,
published his De Verbo Mirifico (1494) mainly to defend the IEUE transcription (liber III
Cap. XII-XIX). He supposed that the final letter of Jesus’ name had to be E because in the
Vulgate the name Iesu was sometimes spelt IESUE177. He emphasized that this Greek
transcription had the advantage of reintroducing the 4 vowels of God’s name, however, the
Latin transcription being IHVH he specified in order to harmonize these two
transcriptions that the Greek letter E was the equivalent of the Latin H. So the Greek form
IESUE would give the Latin form IHSVH. One of the most brilliant scholars of this time,
the Italian humanist Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, friend and former student of Marsilio
Ficino, studied the etymology of God's name in his Disputianum Adversus Astrologos (1496).
Due to his vast knowledge he made brilliant links, which however proved to be rather
daring. To prove the superiority of the Bible he tried to demonstrate that heathen religions
were in fact plagiarisms of biblical religion. He asserted for example that the Roman god
Jupiter was in fact an idolatrous imitation of the God of the Hebrews, and that even the
etymology of this name Jupiter “IOVE-pater” (Jove-father) was a fraudulent copy of it
(Liber V,VI). These explanations scholarly have impressed very much. For example, a
friend of Pico della Mirandola, Agostino Giustiniani, a Catholic bishop, linguist and
geographer, used it in his Psalterium178 (1516). The name IOVA appears in Psalm L (below).

175 MARSILII FICINI FLORENTINI - Liber de Chriftiana Religione. Capitum XXX

Florence (1474) British Museum Library C.9.b.4. fol. 83b.
176 JOANNES WESSEL GANSFORTIUS - Tractatus () Wesseli. De Oriatione. Pars III

Zwolle 1521 British Library 477.a.41(3) lib III, cap XI-XII fol XXXIX.
177 Ezr 3:2 and 1S 6:14, Iesue is also found in 1Ch 7:27 (LXX).
178 Besides the Hebrew text, the Septuagint translation, the Chaldee paraphrase, and an Arabic version, it contains the Vulgate translation,

a new Latin translation by the editor, a Latin translation of the Chaldee paraphrase, and a collection of scholia.
 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 55

He believed that the name Iova (Ioua) was an alteration of the name Jupiter.

Sebastien Chateillon explained in his book entitled Dialogorum Sacrorum (1549) that
the name IOVA, even though it might have a link with the name Iupiter (Jove pater),
should be used in the Bible, which he did in his Latin translation (1551). He used the name
Ioua systematically (below) and translated the famous verse Exodus 3:14 as "I shall be who
I shall be (ero qui ero)".

The meaning of Jesus' name is "salvation" in Matthew 1:21, Chateillon explained in

his comment about that verse that the name can be understood only from Hebrew and he
also gave the reasons why he chose Ioua rather than Iehoua.
56

He explained that the name Jesus was IHVSV‘ (‫ )יהושׁוע‬in Hebrew, not IHVSH
(‫ )יהשׁוה‬and this name was Jesus in the Septuagint but Josue in the Vulgate (Joshua). As
these two names are similar in Hebrew, he deduced that since Jesus’ name in Hebrew
(Ieho-sua) was transcribed Io-sue (YHSW‘) in the Vulgate it was necessary to transcribe the
Tetragram in the same way as Io-ua (YHWH), in order to keep the similarity. With the
same analysis, the Hebraist Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples (1455-1537), disagreed with the
Hebrew form IHSVH for the name of Jesus. In his biblical commentary of the book of
Psalms, Quintuple Psalms (1509), he explains that thanks to the remarks of Reuchlin, it was
easy to pronounce the Tetragram IHVH as it is written (Y = I, H = HE, W = U), that is I-
HE-U-HE, which gives the Latin form Ihevhe (below). However he observed a major
disagreement because according to Hebrew the name of Jesus was IHSVA or IHESVA
instead of IHESV but never IHSVH (IHESVHE).

page 143v

page 109r

When he published some sermons of Nicholas of Cusa (1514), Jacques Lefèvre

d'Étaples used the form Iehoua instead of Ioua. At that time (in 1516), Galatino wrote his
chief work De Arcanis Catholicae Veritatis, at the request of the pope, the emperor, and other
dignitaries, at which time the famous controversy on the authority of the Jewish writings
was assuming a very high profile. Resolved to combat the Jews on their own ground, he
turned the Cabbala against them, and sought to convince them that their own books
 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 57

yielded proof of the truth of the Christian religion, hence their opposition to it should be
branded as obstinacy. He gave his work the form of a dialogue. He had borrowed largely
from the Pugio Fidei of Martini, remodelling, however, the material and supplementing it
with copious quotations from the Zohar and the Iggeret ha-sodot of the Jewish convert Pablo
de Heredia. Galatino dedicated a good part of his work179 (Liber II Caput X) for explaining
how to pronounce God’s name correctly.

First, he quoted profusely from the book of Maimonides The Guide of the Perplexed,
as a reminder that the Tetragram is the proper name of God and that it can be pronounced
according to its letters. However, he demonstrated that the pronunciation Ioua was
inaccurate. He explained for example that the proper name Iuda, written ‫( יודה‬YWDH),
was an abbreviation of the name Iehuda written ‫( יהודה‬YHWDH). All Hebrew proper
P. GALATINUS - Opus toti chriftiane reipublice maxime utile, de arcanis catholice ueritatis
179

Lyon 1518 Bibliothèque La Part Dieu. 100766, pp. XLI-LVIII.

58

names beginning in YHW- [‫ ]יהו‬are moreover always vocalized Ieho-, like Iehosua (‫)יהושׁוע‬
instead of Iosua. Consequently, if the Tetragram was really pronounced Ioua it would have
been written in Hebrew ‫( יוּה‬YWH), which was never the case. So, because the Tetragram is
written ‫( יהוה‬YHWH), one should hear the letter H with its shewa (e) inside the Name. He
concluded that, because God’s name is pronounced according to its letters, the best
transcription was the form Iehoua, because the name Joshua is pronounced Iehosua in
Hebrew, which indeed is very close to Iehoua with a “s”. Similarly the name Juda is
pronounced Iehouda in Hebrew, which is again very close to Iehoua with a “d”.
Name (according to): Joshua Judah Jehu YHWH
Septuagint 250 BCE Iesus Ioudas Ieou (Adonay)
Septuagint (Aquila) 150 CE Iesoua Iouda Ieou (Kurios)
Vulgate 400 CE Iosue Iudas Iehu Dominus
Hebrew Yhwšw‘ Yhwdh Yhw’ Yhwh
Vowel letters Ihôšûa‘ Ihûdâ Ihû’ Ihûâ
Masoretic text 900 CE Yehôšûa‘ Yehûdâ Yehû’ Yehowâ
Galatino 1500 CE Iehosua Iehouda Iehou Iehoua

Given that his demonstration was simple and logical, Galatino succeeded to unlock
completely the uncertainty about the pronunciation of God's name. This explanation
marked a milestone step in establishing the
divine name as Iehoua, and thus convinced
some translators to use it in their translations
of the Bible, at least in certain verses. For
example, Sebastian Münster, the best German
scholar in Hebrew of this time, used the name
Iehova in his Chaldean grammar180 published
in 1526 (he also used Iehosvae instead of
Josue) and that same year Martin Luther wrote
in a sermon181 on Jeremiah 23:1-8: This name
Iehouah, Lord, belongs exclusively to the true God.
William Tyndale, with his burning desire to make the Bible known to the people
made a new translation. The Name first appeared in an English Bible in 1530, when he
published a translation of the first five books of the Bible. He included the name of God,
usually spelled Iehouah, in several verses182, and he wrote in a note in this edition: Iehovah is
God's name (...) Morever as oft as thou seist LORD in great letters (except there be any error in the
printing) it is in Hebrew Iehovah. It is interesting to note that most English translations of this
time mentioned the name of God, very often in Exodus 6:3, except for the Coverdale
translation (1535). Matthew's Bible (1537) explained about Exodus 6:3: Iehouah is the name of
God, and none creature has been named like it, it means: this one who is himself and who depends of no
thing. Thomas Cajetan, an Italian philosopher, theologian, cardinal and the Master of the
Order of Preachers, also stands as exegete. He compensated his ignorance of Hebrew by
consulting rabbis and through his familiarity with the Greek text. From 1523 to 1532 he
published several volumes a literal translation and commentary on the Bible183. His
emphasis on the search for the literal meaning of the text places him at the origins of the
modern Catholic exegetical tradition. Thanks to his knowledge of Hebrew he improved the
180 S. MUNSTERUM - Chaldaica grammatica
Basileae 1527, p. 16.
181 M. LUTHER - Ain Epiftel aufz dem Prophete Jeremia

Wittemberg 1527 Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München Exeg. 659.

182 Gn 15:2; Ex 6:3 15:3 17:16 23:17 33:19 34:23; Dt 3:24.
183 Including a large part of the Old Testament and almost all of the New Testament (with the exception of the Apocalypse of John).
 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 59

Latin translation of the Bible, for example: The Book of Iosue became The Book of Iehosuæ and
in his comments on the books of Moses184 (1531) he used the name Iehouah frequently.
Michael Servetus, a Spanish theologian, physician, and Renaissance humanist185, was
renowned for his scholarly study of the Bible in its original languages. In July 1531, he
published De Trinitatis Erroribus (“On the Errors of the Trinity”), in which he explained that
the name Iehouah (framed) is close to the name of Jesus (Iesua), which means “salvation”
(Iesuah) in Hebrew. On the other hand he noticed that the only Hebrew verbal form in
Hebrew close to yhwh
was the imperfect piel of
the verb “to be”,
vocalized yehauue186 and
meaning “He will make
to be”, as explained
Paulus de Heredia, a
Christian cabalist, in his
book called Epistle of
Secrets187 (1488). Münster
used the name Iehova188
in Exodus 6:3 when he
published his own
translation of the Bible
(1534), despite that he thought this name came from Iouis (Jupiter).
Following the example of early translators, Pierre Robert Olivétan, preferred to use
the form Iehouah in his Bible translation into French (1535), while recognizing that the
Tetragram could also be pronounced Ioua (according to the Vulgate).
Bible (translator) Date Language God’s name (sometimes)
Tyndale 1530 English Lorde (Iehouah)
Cajetan 1531 Latin Dominus (Iehouah)
Münster 1534 Latin Dominus (Iehova)
Olivétan 1535 French Eternel (Iehouah)
Matthew 1537 English Lorde (Iehouah)
Brucioli 1541 Italian Signore (Ieova)
Vatable 1545 Latin Dominus (Iehoua)
Bucer 1547 Latin Iehouah/ Iehouæ
Castellion 1551 Latin Ioua
Castellion 1555 French Ioua
Vatable (R. Estienne) 1557 Latin Iehouah
Calvin189 1563 Latin Iehoua
Reina 1569 Spanish Iehoua
Tremellius 1579 Latin Iehouah
Valera 1602 Spanish Jehovà
184 T. DE VIO CAJETAN -In quinque libros Mosis juxta sensum lit. commentarii
Rome, 1531. Ed. Antonium Bladum.
185 He was the first European to correctly describe the function of pulmonary circulation, as discussed in Christianismi Restitutio (1533).

He was a polymath versed in many sciences: mathematics, astronomy and meteorology, geography, human anatomy, medicine and
pharmacology, as well as jurisprudence, translation, poetry and the scholarly study of the Bible in its original languages. He is renowned
in the history of several of these fields, particularly medicine and theology. He participated in the Protestant Reformation, and later
developed a nontrinitarian Christology.
186 This Hebrew verbal form yehawêh “He will make to be/ He will constitute/ He will generate” is not found in the Bible.
187 PAULUS DE HEREDIA - Epistola Neumia filii Haccanae de Secretia

Roma 1488 Bibliothèque Nationale Française (Res D-67975) fol. 1-5.

188 S. MUNSTERI - En tibi lector Hebraica Latina

Basileae 1534 pp. 56v,57.

189 J. CALVIN -Mosis libri V, cum Johannis Calvini commentariis.

Genève 1563, Ed. Henri II Estienne

60

Strongly influenced by the remarks of Johannes Reuchlin and Giovanni Pico della
Mirandola, the grammarians of this time believed that Iehoua was an improvement on the
name Jupiter, a deformation of Ioua-pater meaning “Father Ioua”. Angelo Canini clarified
however, in his grammar190, written in 1554, that he preferred Iehoua to Ioua, because
Iehoua more closely resembled names Ieshoua and Iehouda. Consequently after 1555, all
translators adopted the form Iehoua, coming from Galatino, which became after 1600, the
well-known name “Jehovah”. However, suspicion towards the vocalization Iehoua had
appeared when it finally linguistically won. The debate over the use of Iehoua or Ioua had
been a quarrel restricted to Hebrew scholars. However, when the conclusions of their
debate began reaching readers of the Bible, it became much more theological and
controversial. The real reasons behind this quarrel against God's name was not linguistic
but theological because the majority of Bible translators at that time, as well as qualified
Hebraists, were either Waldensian supporters like Olivétan, Vatable, R. Estienne or worse
(for Catholic theologians), anti-Trinitarians like Servetus and Castellion.
The first antagonist was Archbishop Gilbert Genebrard, who, in his book written
in 1568 to defend the Trinity, dedicated several pages to the name in an effort to refute S.
Casteillon, P. Galatin, S. Pagnin, and others who had used Iehoua. For example, he argued
that the name Iehoua resulted from a change of the heathen name Ioue (Jupiter) into Ioua
then Iehoua; he specified that the verbal form yhwh “He is” should be read Iehue, not
Iehoua. First of all, he rejected Chateillon’s Ioua using Saint Augustine’s explanation, via
Varro, that the Jews had worshiped Ioue (Jupiter!), and therefore the use of Ioua was a
return to paganism. In the foreword to his commentary on Psalms he went so far as to
state that the name Ioua was barbarian, fictitious and irreligious. Concerning the writings of
Clement of Alexandria (Iaou), Jerome (Iaho) and Theodoret (Iabe), he considered these as
mere variations of Ioue, and that these testimonies appeared unreliable because, at the time
they were written, the Jews had not pronounced the Name for several centuries. Lastly, he
claimed that P. Galatin (as well as S. Pagnin), who had used the form “Iehoua”, had not
accounted for the theological meaning “He is” when searching for the right pronunciation.
Indeed, since the translation of the Septuagint (“He who is” in Exodus 3:14) it was known
that the definition of the divine Name was essentially “He is”. Genebrard tried to confirm
this definition due to his knowledge of the Hebrew language. So, since in Exodus 3:14 God
calls himself “I am”, in Hebrew “Ehie” (’eh eyêh), one should say, when speaking about God,
“He is”, that is in Hebrew Iihie (yiheyêh). Grammatically, the form “Iihie” was likely derived
from a more archaic form “Iehue” (yihewêh), suggested in 1550 by Luigi Lippomano.
Genebrard then pointed out that Abbot Joachim of Flora used this more exact form (Ieue)
in his book on the Apocalypse. Genebrard’s explanation, although unable to convince,
impressed many because of its intellectual approach, and, during the century that followed
Bible commentators often noted this form Iehue (or Iiheue) when using the more accepted
Iehoua. However, in spite of the masterly presentation, it remained theoretic because of
lack of early proof. Genebrard's major contribution was to introduce the theological
meaning of the Name into the search for its pronunciation, a process that provoked a
profusion of new pronunciations due to the ever increasing knowledge of the Hebrew
language and its history. Translator Benito Arias Montano explained in one of his books
(1572), that the divine name was never read Iehovih or Iehovah by the Masoretes and he
agreed with Genebrard that the old pronunciation was probably Iehveh. Being afraid to
favour a name of heathen origin, since he too thought Iehoua resulted from a
transformation of Iouis into Ioua, then Iehoua, he replaced this name in his Latin
190 ANGELO CANINI- De nomine Iesv et Iova
in: Institutiones lingua Syriacæ (Lyon 1554) Collège de la Sainte Trinité de la Compagnie de Jésus.
 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 61

translation of Psalms (1574) with IA (surer form). Cardinal Robert Bellarmin asserted
moreover (1578) that the form Iehoua was erroneous, because it had the vowels e,o,a, of
the qere Adonay (a,o,a becoming e,o,a for grammatical reasons!). Although all these
accusations were actually a stacking of guesswork based on an uncertain knowledge, they
will be quickly “improved” by Protestant theologians from 1600 on. This time around, the
real reasons behind the quarrel against God's name was once again theological because the
majority of Catholic scholars of that time had finally accepted the form Iehouah and this
choice displeased Protestants scholars who felt more competent than Catholic scholars.
GOD’S NAME, ITS COLLAPSE INSIDE CHRISTENDOM (1600-2000 CE)
Attacks against the pronunciation “Iehoua” focused mainly on three points: 1) this
vocalization could not be true because it had resulted from a misreading, the vowel-points
of Adonai having been mixed with the consonants of the Tetragram; 2) the vocalization
Iehueh of the verbal form “He is/ He will be”, matching to the religious explanation given
in Exodus 3:14, was different to Iehoua and 3) the verbal form Iehueh could come from an
archaic Iahueh because the oldest testimonies of the pronunciation of God's name were
Iaô/Iaho or Iave, according to ancient historians. For example, Johannes van den
Driesche, a Flemish Protestant divine, distinguished specially as an Orientalist, published in
1603 a long article dedicated to the pronunciation of God’s name (Tetragrammaton sive de
nomine dei proprio) in order to discredit the vocalization Iehoua. His main arguments were
that the Masoretic punctuation of the Tetragram could not be used as a basis for
pronouncing God’s name because it was a qere; so the form Iehovih, resulting from the qere
Elohim, would be nonsense. He thus concluded that Iehovah was also a barbarism. He
repeated the same arguments as Genebrard against Ioua, and then reminded his audience
that according to the best grammarians of his time the expression “He is” should be
pronounced Ieheve191 meaning “He will be” (like in Ecclesiastes 11:3). He then theorized,
using a few examples that the form Ieheve resulted from an archaic Iahave or Iahveh, and
in conclusion noted that this form Iahave was very similar to the Samaritan pronunciation
Iave given by Theodoret. Although all these arguments are backed by great scholarship,
they remained yet a stacking of guesswork based on an uncertain knowledge. However this
very complicated explanation intended to justify the form Iahveh has disconcerted some
translators who had used the “simplistic” Iehoua.
Louis Cappel, a French Protestant churchman and Hebrew scholar, dedicated
almost one hundred pages to the pronunciation of the Name in one of his articles192
published in 1650. As well as resuming many of Drusius’ arguments, he explained a few
new ideas. For example, he argued that the first syllable was certainly Iah-, because many
names had lost their initial vowel, for example Nabû in the Septuagint had become Nebô in
the Masoretic text, consequently Yahûh could have become Yehôh193, in addition he noted
that most ancient witnesses (hence the most reliable) have usually mentioned Iaô, and for
this last reason he preferred Iahuoh to Iahave or Iahue. Cappel's work has deeply
impressed Protestant circles. For example, Jean Le Clerc, a Swiss Protestant theologian and
biblical scholar, who was famous for promoting exegesis, or critical interpretation of the
Bible, quoted Cappel in his Ars Critica published in 1696, to explain why he preferred
Jahvoh to Jehovah194. However, after further examination of this complex issue, Le Clerc
changed his mind and preferred Jahveh to Jahvoh. What is surprising in his argument is
191 West Aramaic peal imperfect, which is now vocalized yihewêh.
192 IOANNIS CAPPELLI - Critica Sacra
Paris 1650, pp. 666-739.
193 This hypothesis is absurd because if Yahûh was the ancient vocalization of God’s name it would have been Iaou in the Septuagint.
194 Ars Critica (Part II, Section I, Chapter XIII).
62

that it is purely philosophical and takes no account of linguistic laws. He explained first
that, according to the testimony of Jerome (Iaho), the vocalization of the Tetragram could
be Jahavoh, Jahvoh or Jahwoh195 but according to Theodotet (Iave), the vocalization of the
Tetragram could be Javeh or Jahweh. To choose between these two possibilities he
appealed to philosophy. According to the text of Exodus 3:14 the meaning of the
Tetragram (YHWH) comes from the verb “to be” in Hebrew (HYH) or Aramaic (HWH).
According to the Septuagint, God’s name means “He who is” while according to the
Vulgate it means “He is” whereas to Hebrew it means “He will be”. To solve the problem,
Leclerc offered a new definition of God's name, because God is the Creator of everything
“He makes to be” everything. In Hebrew there are only two possible ways to express this
idea: 1) the factitive form yehawêh (piel) “He makes to be” or the causative form yahawêh
(hiphil) “He causes to be”. The causative form whose meaning is close to the factitive form
had the great advantage of starting with Yah-, which corresponded to the testimonies of
the past and particularly to that of Theodoret (Iaoue). The god Yahweh who causes to be/
become, the rival of Jehovah who will [prove to] be, was born at this moment196.

What is amazing is that all academics have been hypnotized by this demonstration,
which served and still serves to justify the Yahweh shape, whereas it is absolutely nonsense.
Indeed, even the Anchor Bible Dictionary, which supports this causative form, to prove the
He considered that the vocalization given by Philo of Byblos (Ieuo) was a distortion of Iahuoh.
195

JOANNIS CLERICI - Mosis prophetae Libri quatuor; Exodus, Leviticus, Numeri, et Deuteronomium
196

Amsterdam 1710, pp. 18-32.

 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 63

vocalization Yahweh, must admit it does not exist: The reconstructed form yahwēh is the
corresponding form of the causative stem (of the Hebrew verb hāyāh, “to be”). This analysis is encouraged
by theological notions of God as one who is, or who exists, or who causes existence. Thus the explanation of
Yahweh in Exod 3:14, “I am who I am,” is a folk etymology based on this verb. The analysis of the name
as a causative falters on the grammatical point observed by Barr that “the causative of this verb does not
occur in Hebrew elsewhere197. In a scholarly Bible (L. Pirot, A. Clamer 1956 p. 83) it is written
that the causative form cannot be taken into account for two main reasons. Firstly, the
causative form of the verb “to be” is not known in Hebrew, furthermore to express a
causative sense, the piel form was used. Secondly, this philosophical notion did not come
from Hebrew but from Greek philosophy and the more natural meaning is: I shall [prove to]
be (with you) according to Exodus 3:12. Lastly, André Caquot, a renowned professor198,
explained that Iaoue/Yahweh of Clement of Alexandria as “the being and having to be”, is
a theological choice rather than philological199.
What's really amazing, is that the decisive argument for choosing Yahweh is easy to
refute. Just check in a Hebrew grammar for beginners to notice that factitive and causative
forms of the verb “to be” does not exist200 and must be reconstituted. Unbelievable! Bible
readers were blinded by scholarly explanations of theologians who have never understood
that biblical etymologies are not “folk etymologies (for simpletons)” but “prophetic
etymologies” based on wordplays (for believers)”, here is the key. The very first question
that Moses asked God when he was appointed as mediator was: Suppose the sons of Israel do
say to me ‘How is his name201?’ what shall I say to them? The question of course was neither about
pronunciation because Moses knew it, as proves the name of his mother: Jochebed
“Jeho[vah] is Glory”, nor about grammatical meaning of the Name because Moses knew
Hebrew language very well, but the question, as evidenced by God's answer, was about its
biblical and prophetic meaning. The name of God “Yehowah” means nothing in Hebrew
but its religious etymology “He will [prove to] be” in Exodus is yiheyêh (Kal / paal) or yihewêh
(peal) in Aramaic202, a verbal form found in Ecclesiastes 11:3 and obviously, because there
is not theological explanation in this verse “the tree will [prove to] be there”, all translators
are able to translate it easily into “it will [prove to] be”. The common assumption to make
match the grammatical etymology with the biblical etymology is contrary to common sense,
197 D.N. FREEDMAN - The Anchor Bible Dictionary vol. 6
New York 1992 Ed. Doubleday p. 1011.
198 ANDRÉ CAQUOT is a French Orientalist, specialist in the history and Semitic civilizations. Professor of Hebrew and Aramaic at the

Collège de France, he was elected in 1986 president of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-lettres. He was appointed director of
studies of compared Semitic religions to the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes and lectured on the history of religions at the Protestant
Faculty of Theology of the University of Strasbourg. President of the Asiatic Society and the Society of Jewish Studies, André Caquot
was also General Secretary of the French Society for the History of Religions.
199 A. CAQUOT - Les énigmes d'un hémistiche biblique

in: Dieu et l'être (Paris 1978) Ed. Études Augustiniennes C.N.R.S. p. 24 note 23.
200 A. VANLIER HUNTER - Biblical Hebrew Workbook: An Inductive Study for Beginners

Lanham 1988, Ed. University Press of America, pp. 140-141.

201 An inaccurate translation of Exodus 3:13 leads to a faulty understanding of this verse. In numerous Bibles one can read the question:

What is his name? as in Judges 13:17, when Manoah wanted to know the name, that is the pronunciation of the name, of the angel who
came to meet him; on the other hand the Israelites asked Moses: How is his name? that is: what does his name/fame mean?. One can verify that
in Hebrew the interrogation ‘what, how’ is mâ (‫ )מה‬and ‘who’ is mî (‫)מי‬. Thus, there is a big difference between asking to know a name
because one is in ignorance of it, as in Ezra 5:4, and asking the meaning of a name which one already knows, as in Genesis 32:27 where
the angel asks Jacob to remind him of the meaning ‘He will supplant’ of his name, which meaning was already known to him (Gn 27:36),
in order to give him a new one ‘He will contend’ (Gn 32:28). Thus, when Moses asked God: How is his name? God, in fact, gave the
explanation: I shall [prove to] be what I shall [prove to] be (ehyeh asher ehyeh). Even here, regrettably, numerous translators are influenced by
Greek philosophy on the being as existing, developed by Plato in some of his works, including Parmenides. For example, the Septuagint
was going translating this passage by: I am the being’ (egô eimi o ôn), that is: I am He who is; while Aquila's translation, more faithful to
Hebrew, translates this sentence by: I shall be: I shall be (esomai esomai). As indicated by a study on the translation of this sentence, the
difficulty results from translators who want to explain this translation by means of their personal beliefs very often influenced by Greek
philosophy; otherwise there is no difficulty (B. ALBREKTSON -On the Syntax of ‫ אהיה אשׁר אהיה‬in Exodus 3:14 in: Words and Meanings
(Cambridge 1968) Ed. Cambridge University Press pp. 15-28). For example, one finds the word ehyeh just before (Ex 3:12) and just after
(Ex 4:12,15) and here translators have no problem translating it by: I shall [prove to] be with you.
202 B. DAVIDSON – The Analytical Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon

USA 1990, Ed. Hendrickson Publishers, P. 51 note 4e, p. 300.

64

indeed why it would have be necessary to explain a name if everyone (who spoke Hebrew
at that time) was able to understand it. It is also clear that if we compare the grammatical
etymology with its biblical explanation, there is no equivalence but only a link based on
vocal similarities203 (actually wordplays).
Hebrew name Meaning of the name Religious etymology Hebrew vocalization Reference
Abraham Father (of Raham?) Father of a crowd Abhamon Gn 17:5
Babel Gate of God Being confused Balûl Gn 11:9
Barnabeh Son of high place Son of consolation Barnaḥam Ac 4:36
Ḥawah (Eve) - To live Ḥay Gn 3:20
Lewi (being) joined He will be joined Yilawi Gn 29:34
Mošeh Drawing out Being drawn out Mašûy Ex 2:10
Noaḥ Rest He will comfort Yenoḥam Gn 5:29
Qayin - Being acquired Qanuy Gn 4:1
Re’ûben See, a son He has look upon Ra’ah Gn 29:32
Šamû’el Being heard of God Being asked to God Ša’ûl’el 1Sa 1:20
Šeth Tumult He has appointed Šath Gn 4:25
Ya‘aqob He will hold the heel He will hold the heel Ya‘aqob Gn 25:26
Yehowah - He will [prove to] be Yihewêh Ex 3:14
Yehûdah He will be lauded He will laud Yehôdêh Gn 29:35
Yerûšalem Foundation completed Foundation of peace Yerûšalom Hb 7:2
Yešûa‘ Y-Salvation He will save Yôšia‘ Mt 1:21
Yiṣḥaq He will laugh He laughed Ṣaḥaq Gn 17:17
Yisra’el He will contend, God He contended, God Sara’el Gn 32:28
Yôseph - He will add Yôsiph Gn 30:24
Yôseph - He will collect Yê’soph Gn 30:23
Zebûlûn Lofty abode He will inhabit Yizbeleni Gn 30:20

Unfortunately, given that most people, including scholars, have blind faith in
theologians, they have been unable to see they have been deceived. There is no equality
between God's name (Yehowah), which means nothing in Hebrew like Abraham’s name, and
its biblical definition “He wil [prove to] be (yiheyêh or yihewêh)”. Although the three main
arguments taken separately do not stand up to analysis, they give the illusion of being
strong in the same way as three completely drunk men come to walk by standing clinging
to each other. Leclerc's erudite work, published in 1710, has perfectly managed to shake the
confidence of Bible translators in the name of Jehova. After that date there will be several
reactions (from 1700 to 1800): the first was to continue using God's name, stating in a
footnote that the authentic pronunciation in Hebrew was Jahweh. A second reaction (from
1800 to 1850) was to come back to Maimonides’ definition about God’s name,which is
“pronounced as it is written”. For example, Johann Babor, Doctor of Theology and
historian, professor of hermeneutics of the Old and New Testament and Director of
theological studies at the University of Olomouc, used the name Ihoua (Luke 4:18 below)
in his translation of the New Testament204 (1805).

203 H. MARKS - Biblical Naming and Poetic Etymology

in: Journal of Biblical Literature 114/1. (1995, The Society of Biblical Literature), pp. 21-42.
J. BARR - Etymology and the Old Testament
in: Oudtestamentische Studiën XIX. Leiden (1974, Brill), pp. 1-28
204 J. BABOR - Uebersetzung des Neuen Testaments mit erklärenden Anmerkungen

Wien 1805, Ed. J.V. Degen, pp. 147,152,168

 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 65

Antoine Fabre d'Olivet, a French author, poet and composer whose Biblical and
philosophical hermeneutics influenced many occultists. His best known work is on the
research of the Hebrew language and the history of the human race entitled: The Hebraic
Tongue Restored: And the True Meaning of the Hebrew Words Re-Established and Proved by their
Radical Analysis, in which he explains there is no need of vowel-points to understand
Hebrew, because this language
can be vocalized through
vowel letters. He applied this
method, of reading the words
according to their letters, in
his translation of the Book of
Genesis (1823) in which he
systematically used IHÔAH
(Gn 8:20-21, right)
Jean du Verdier, a colleague of David Paul Drach who was a Catholic convert from
Judaism, and librarian of the College of Propaganda in Rome, used the form IEOE in his
Hebrew grammar205 (1843) in which he explains that Hebrew language can be read
according to its letters (Y, H, W, ‘ and ’). Augustin Crampon who studied theology and
biblical exegesis under the
direction of the Orientalist
Arthur Le Hir, then carried out
himself this teaching and
translated into French all the
canonical books from the
Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek
texts. He systematically used
the name Jova (framed) in his
Latin translation206 (1856), in
accordance with the God-
bearing names of the Vulgate. The solution of the returning to a pronunciation of God’s
name “according to its letters” was not deemed satisfactory by Bible translators (like
Crampon) who believed that the form Yahweh was authentic. Levi Herzfeld, a German
rabbi and historian, was the first scholar who chose to replace systematically Jehovah by
Jahweh in his translation of the biblical text207 (1855). This choice was decisive for most
Bible translators because after that date a growing number of Bibles replaced the name
Jehovah by Jahweh (or a variant).
Bible Date Language God’s name (sometimes)
J. Babor 1805 German Herrn (Ihoua)
A. Fabre d’Olivet 1823 French Ihôah
E.F.K. Rosenmüller 1827 Latin Jova
J. Du Verdier 1843 French Ieoe
A. Crampon 1856 Latin Jova
L. Herzfeld 1855 German Jahweh
Emphasised 1878 English Yahweh
Leides Vertaling 1899 Dutch Jahwe
205 J. DU VERDIER - Nova methodus hebraica punctis masoreticis expurgata
Paris 1847, Éd. J.P. Migne, pp. 883-890.
206 A. CRAMPON - Supplementum ad commentaria in scripturam sacram R.P. Cornelii a Lapide

Paris 1856, Ed. Ludovicus Vives Bibliopola.

207 L. HERZFELD -Geschichte des volkes Iisrael von der zerstörung des ersten tempels bis zur einsetzung des Makkabäers Schim, Vol 2

Rodhausfen 1855, Ed G. Westermann.

66

A. Crampon 1904 French Jéhovah (= Yahvéh)

An American Translation 1923 English LORD (Yahweh)
A. Crampon revised 1923 French Yahweh
Pontificio Instituto Biblico 1923 Italian Signore, Jahve
Petrus-Canisiusvertaling 1929 Dutch Jahweh
Nàcar-Colunga 1944 Spanish Yavé
Jérusalem 1948 French Yahvé
Jerusalem 1955 English Yahweh
Vatican 2008 all Lord

As one can see the work of Herzfeld published in 1855 had a great impact because
after that date more and more translators have chosen to replace Jehovah by Yahweh or
LORD. When the Bible for French Jews of Samuel Cahen was reprinted in 1856 the name
Iehovah was systematically replaced by “Eternel”. In 1906, the prestigious Jewish
Encyclopedia validated blindly all the erroneous conjectures of Jean Le Clerc. When the
Emphasised Bible (1872) for American Protestants of Joseph Bryant Rotherham has been
revised in 1878, the translator extensively explained in his preface the reasons which led
him to replace Jehovah by Yahweh208: (God’s name is) erroneously written and pronounced Jehovah,
which is merely a combination of the sacred Tetragrammaton and the vowels in the Hebrew word for Lord,
substituted by the Jews for JHVH, because they shrank from pronouncing The Name, owing to an old
misconception of the two passages, Ex. xx. 7 and Lev. xxiv. 16 ... To give the name JHVH the vowels of
the word for Lord (Heb. Adonai) and pronounce it Jehovah, is about as hybrid a combination as it would
be to spell the name Germany with the vowels in the name Portugal —viz., Gormuna. The monstrous
combination Jehovah is not older than about 1520 A.D. —Professor Paul Haupt, General Editor of
“The Polychrome Bible,” in the Book of Psalms, pp. 163,164 (...) The form “Yahweh” is here adopted as
practically the best. The only competing form would be “Yehweh,” differing, it will be observed, only in a
single vowel —“e” for “a” in the first syllable. But even this difference vanishes on examination. It is true
that “Yehweh” is intended to suggest the derivation of the noun from the simple (Kal) conjugation of the
verb, and that some scholars take “Yahweh” as indicating a formation from the causative (Hiphil)
conjugation (...) The true pronunciation seems to have been Yahwè (or Iahway, the initial I = y, as in
Iachimo). The final e should be pronounced like the French ê, or the English e in there, and the first h
sounded as an aspirate (...) Yahweh is almost always regarded as the third person, singular, masculine,
imperfect tense, from the root hawah, an old form of the root hayah. The one meaning of hawah is
“become.” So that the force of Yahweh thus derived, as a verb, would be “He will become”. Impressive
amount of twaddle relying on a prestigious Professor209. As everybody can see, the vowels
of Adonai are a,o,a, which are not the vowels e,a of the Tetragrammaton (coming from the
Aramaic word Shema “The Name”) and they have never been used to vocalized God's
name210. The second statement is downright absurd: how is it possible to have in the same
time a Kal form “He will become” Yehweh and a Hiphil form “He causes to become”
Yahwèh. If you accept that Yahwèh = Yehweh, I dare say that Big Brother is watching you
and is saying to you 2+2=5.
The reaction of the Catholic Church dealing with Yahweh has been more complex.
The Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith211 despite the numerous improvements
208 J. BRYANT ROTHERHAM -The Emphasised Bible A New Translation
Cincinnati 1916, Ed. The Standard Publishing Company, pp. 22-29.
209 Paul Haupt was a Semitic scholar, one of the pioneers of Assyriology in the United States. In 1880 he became privatdocent in the

University of Göttingen and from 1883 to 1889 was assistant professor of Assyriology. In 1883 he became professor of Semitic
languages at Johns Hopkins University, but until 1889 continued to lecture in the summer at Göttingen. In addition to numerous smaller
articles, he projected and edited the Polychrome Bible, a critical edition of the Hebrew text of the Old Testament, and a new English
translation with notes. A unique feature of this edition is the use of different colours to distinguish the various sources and component
parts in the Old Testament books —each one of which is entrusted to a specialist in biblical studies.
210 For example, Pope Innocent III explained in one of his sermons (c. 1200) that IESU's name has the same vowels of IEUE, the name

of God (punctuated e,a in Hebrew).

211 The Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide was founded by Pope Gregory XV in 1622 to arrange missionary work on behalf of the various

religious institutions, and in 1627 Pope Urban VIII established within it a training college for missionaries.
 GOD'S NAME: READABLE BUT UNPRONOUNCEABLE, WHY? 67

of biblical texts made by Protestant scholars, always supported the Vulgate until 1904 (a
Latin Bible which does not contain God's name) as well as the vocalization Jehovah! For
example, Paul Drach, a rabbi converted to Catholicism who later belonged to the Sacred
Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, explained in his work Harmony Between the Church
and the Synagogue published in 1842, why it was logical that the pronunciation Yehova, which
was in agreement with the beginning of all theophoric names, was the authentic
pronunciation, contrary to the form Yahve of Samaritan origin. He disproved the foolish
criticisms against the form Yehova, like the charge of erroneous reading attributed to
Galatino, quoting Raymond Martini and Porchetus de Salvaticis to reject this assertion.
Then he demonstrated the unreasonableness of the transmutation of the vowels a,o,a of
the word Adonay into e,o,a, since this hypothetical grammatical rule (one contrary to the
nature of the qere/ kethib) was already demolished in the word Elohim which keeps its three
vowels è,o,i without the need to change them to e,o,i212. With great humour, he mocked
those who wanted to pronounce the Tetragram by “Lord” or “Yahve” calling them the
Adonites or Yahwehites, because according to their logic they would have to pronounce
John, Jonathan, Joshua, Jesus, Jehu, Eliehoenai (1Ch 26:3), etc. as Adonan, Adonathan, Adonshua,
Adonsus, Adonhu, Eladonenai, etc., for those who like Adonai “My Lord” (or Yahn, Yanathan,
Yashua, Yasus, Yahu, Elyahvenai, for those who like Yahve, Yehohanan, Yehonathan, Yehoshua,
Yeshua, Yehu, Elyehoenai, for those who support Yehova). As a result, when the Bible of
Abbot Crampon became the official Bible of Catholicism, the title Dominus (“Lord”) has
been systematically replaced by Jéhovah, however, when this name appears for the first
time in the text of Genesis 2:4 a footnote explains: Its real pronunciation was Yahvéh; the form
Jéhovah comes from the Masoretes, who attributed to this word the vowels of Adonaï, another name for
God, which means Lord. When the Bible was revised in 1923, the main revision has been to
replace Jéhovah by Yahweh. This new choice created a cacophony in God’s name: Jehovah,
Yahweh, Jahweh, Jahveh, Jahve, Jave, etc. In 2001 the Vatican's Congregation for Divine
Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (the agency in charge of liturgical matters)
put forth an “Instruction” known as Liturgiam Authenticam which included the following
directive: In accordance with immemorial tradition ... the name of almighty God expressed by the Hebrew
tetragrammaton (YHWH) and rendered in Latin by the word Dominus, is to be rendered into any
given vernacular by a word equivalent in meaning. In 2008 this rule was then reinforced by a
“Letter to the Bishops Conferences on The Name of God”: In the light of what has been
expounded, the following directives are to be observed: 1. In liturgical celebrations, in songs and prayers the
name of God in the form of the tetragrammaton YHWH is neither to be used nor pronounced. 2. For
the translation of the biblical text in modern languages, destined for the liturgical usage of the church, what
is already prescribed by No. 41 of the instruction Liturgiam Authenticam is to be followed; that is, the
divine tetragrammaton is to be rendered by the equivalent of Adonai/Kyrios: Lord, Signore, Seigneur,
Herr, Señor, etc. 3. In translating in the liturgical context, texts in which are present, one after the other,
either the Hebrew term Adonai or the tetragrammaton YHWH, Adonai is to be translated Lord and
the form God is to be used for the tetragrammaton YHWH, similar to what happens in the Greek
translation of the Septuagint and in the Latin translation of the Vulgate.
For a sincere Catholic the present situation must be very uncomfortable, because he
can read in his official Bible (Jerusalem Bible): They are doing their best, by means of the dreams
that they keep telling each other, to make my people forget my name, just as their ancestors forgot my name
in favour of Baal ("Lord"). Let the prophet who has had a dream tell it for a dream! And let him who
receives a word from me, deliver my word accurately! 'What have straw and wheat in common? Yahweh
demands (Jr 23:27-28). Paradoxically his own Bible is now under the ban, because it uses the
P.L.B. DRACH - De l'harmonie entre l'église et la synagogue
212

1978 Belgium, Ed. Socii Sancti Michaelis, pp. 370,473-498.

68

forbidden name Yahweh, and if he obeys his Church he disobeys God who condemns the
prophets of the Lord (Baal). On the other hand it was written in his former Bible
(Crampon 1904): Then those who feared Jehovah talked to one another about this, and Jehovah took
note and listened; and a book of remembrance was written in his presence recording those who feared him
and kept his name in mind. On the day when I act, says Jehovah of armies, they will be my most prized
possession, and I shall spare them in the way a man spares the son who serves him (Ml 3:16-17).
GOD’S NAME, SO WHAT
The conclusion of the matter, everything having been heard, as said the wise king
Solomon at the end of his book, there is only one God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob whose name is written YHWH in Hebrew, more than 6000 times in the Old
Testament. In the Lord's Prayer, Jesus said: Let your name (YHWH) be sanctified (Mt 6:9), not
Let my name be sanctified as well as: I shall proclaim your name to my brothers, praise you in full
assembly (Heb 2:12). Apostle John (Yehohanan in Hebrew) wrote: After this I heard what
seemed to be the great sound of a huge crowd in heaven, singing, 'Alleluia! Salvation and glory and power to
our God (...) And again they sang, 'Alleluia! The smoke of her will rise for ever and ever. Then the 24
elders and the 4 living creatures threw themselves down and worshipped God seated on his throne, and they
cried, 'Amen, Alleluia' (Rv 19:1-4). He knew Hebrew and was able to understand that
“Amen, Alleluia” meant “Truly, Praise Yah”. Yah is a shortened form or a diminutive of
the divine name, which is a pet name not an abbreviation, in the same manner that Beth or
Betty are shortened forms or a diminutives of Elizabeth and Eliza or Liz are abbreviations.
In the Bible, names are never translated. Replacing a name by a title (Lord, God, Almighty)
or a symbol (Heaven) is a crime. When somebody was entering a concentration camp, the
first act made by Nazi officers was to replace names by figures in order to deny the
existence of these anonymous victims. The only character in the whole Bible who knows
God and refuses to pronounce his name is Satan, even when he discusses with Jesus (Mt
4:1-10). Those who state that the pronunciation of God's name has been lost are illogical
because most Egyptian gods were able to preserve their names (Râ, Amun, Thoth, Isis,
Horus, Aten, etc.) but the Almighty God would not have been able to protect his own. The
way to know its pronunciation does rely on scholars but on hundreds of theophoric names
which all begin with YHW- are always vocalized “Yehô-” in Hebrew, without exception213.
Similarly, given that all Hebrew names which end with -WH are always vocalized “-wah”,
without exception, it is easy to conclude that in Hebrew the name YHWH had to be
vocalized Yehowah (Jehovah in English). Those who prefer the pronunciation Jahweh
should say: Jasus, Jahn, Janathan, etc., instead of Jesus, John, Jonathan, etc., in order to be
in harmony with their choice. Those who refuse to pronounce God’s name, in order to
follow “the venerable tradition from the Septuagint”, which replaced God’s name with Kurios
“Lord”, should say IHS or IS instead of Jesus (IESOUS), because this sacred name is never
written in full in the New Testament before 400 CE. Finally, it is not necessary to know
Hebrew to get the meaning of God's name since even Moses did not know it and
consequently asked God, but the definition of the name is clearly expressed by God
Himself in Exodus 3:14 “I shall [prove to] be” or “I shall [come to] be”. Despite it is
written: You must not add to the word that I am commanding you, neither must you take away from it, so
as to keep the commandments of Jehovah your God that I am commanding you (Dt 4:2), many
translators have added a few words to the definition of God's name in Exodus 3:14 in
order “to improve it”. However, like the tree mentioned by King Solomon at the end of his
book, the name of Yehowah, “it will [prove to] be (yiheweh)” there (Ec 11:3), for ever.
213 Even when the diminutive YHW is inside a theophoric name like Elyehôenai (1Ch 26:3, Ezr 8:4) it is still vocalized yehô. If God’s

name had been Yahveh, Elyehôenai would have been Elyahvenai.